EXUMA & Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper.
By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
The opposition's shadow finance minister yesterday warned the "way of life for many Bahamians is under threat" to the continual loss of institutions and jobs in the financial services industry.
Chester Cooper, the Progressive Liberal Party's (PLP) deputy leader, told the House of Assembly that "we need to act now" after Julius Baer became the latest major brand to announce it was exiting the jurisdiction with the loss of 30 jobs.
Pointing to the high-salary positions being lost, he added that the financial services sector's impact was felt far beyond the industry itself as spin-off impacts helped Bahamians purchase homes, and insurance, stimulated construction, and helped pay for school fees, cars, taxes and the creation of other businesses and jobs.
As a result, Mr Cooper charged: "The way of life for many Bahamians is under direct threat as the industry shifts and The Bahamas is left without answers in the face of this. We need to now ask ourselves, seriously, what the future holds for the offshore financial services industry in The Bahamas, and we need to act now."
He added that "financial institutions that have pivoted to the Latin American market with special emphasis on investment funds are best poised to survive", but said "through blacklisting and bullying, our confidentiality regime has been badly compromised and with that we have lost a great deal of our competitive edge."
Urging the Government to put in place "a strategic plan" for the industry to "enhance and protect jobs for the middle class", Mr Cooper continued: "Our business model has to transform. We need to focus on real international business having a presence here that is supported by the sector.
"We need real economic substance and presence, which will require a sensible and harmonious immigration policy that is properly monitored. It will require making sure we tout what is attractive for people who set up these companies to move their families here. This will mean robust ease of doing business reforms, policies and processes to make this happen."
Mr Cooper also called for "a more efficient companies registry". He added: "Global regulation is impacting all jurisdictions, and The Bahamas must be able to compete on service delivery.
"Businesses won't flourish if we don't address inefficiencies in service areas that are meant to support this industry. The cost of doing business; the consistency and predictability of systems and services by government agencies; the removal of red tape; better turnaround times at the National Economic Council; and smoother approval processes.
"We need to modernise our approach and become more business-focused and facilitate, rather than impede business opportunities."
Comments
Economist 4 years, 10 months ago
First you need to open up the economy. In order to do that you need to liberalize immigration for investors and entrepreneurs.
Based on your parties track record, you won't agree to that, so give us details, yes details on what you would do.
banker 4 years, 10 months ago
Right on Brother!
BahamaPundit 4 years, 10 months ago
First thing I would do is open the Bahamas banking and corporate legal sector to a few big UK offshore law firms that operate in Cayman (Walkers, Apleby etc). Cayman is eating out lunch!!! We have to return currency and relevance to the Bahamian offshore jurisdiction product. The easiest way to do this is to entice the main global offshore law firms to incorporate The Bahamas jurisdiction into tax structuring and financial products.
banker 4 years, 10 months ago
Amen Brother!
Dawes 4 years, 10 months ago
AS the above two posted have said the only way to reverse the change is opening the economy. This is never going to happen so expect the continue decline.
BahamaPundit 4 years, 10 months ago
Yes. Open the economy in selective legal financial services to global players. Not fling open the gates.
bogart 4 years, 10 months ago
Biggest CONTRACTION is not the "Bank Contraction Threatens 'Way oOf life' For Bahamas"
BIGGEST CONTRACTION is da biggest contraction of the OPPOSITION Party and short of 4 seats failure to vote then out. Entire failure bigger than the Banks contraction is having ineffective ContractionOpposition Party. Biggest failure is the continuous seesawing back and forth each having thenselves woefully voted out and continued rot festering. No Opposition Party for the people having instead evolved back and forth erry 5 years into Syndicates, benefit only for themselves micromanaging, coercing, manipulating, for political showboating, all aspects for political party benefit. Mr. Cooper should know his Party bin around in Parliament Chamber watching the Bank demise for decades.
banker 4 years, 10 months ago
Chester is yesterday's man. Even his strategy of chasing Latin American money, is the same old "yesterday" tactics of hiding money from sovereign tax authorities. It is the last bastion of the tax haven, because those Latin American countries don't have the muscle to exert influence in the international community, like the OECD does.
When I was doing wealth management with a local-domiciled bank, our compliance officers turned away a huge number of Latin American clients because what they were doing, was contrary to the rules of the FATF and contrary to the tax laws of their own country.
It's only the fly-by-nighters and the local little guys taking Latin American money now, and if we want to play in the international community, we can't get dirty in the Latin American sandbox (or more accurately, a kitty litter box).
Alfred Sears had it right. We gatta change, and we een used to that.
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