Former Attorney General (AG) John Delaney believes that a jurisdiction's ability to safeguard sensitive financial information should be taken into consideration when determining whether to grant access to such data.
Delaney told Guardian Business he approved of the decision by the Ministry of Finance to adopt the Common Reporting Standard for Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) for tax purposes, and pursue AEOI through bilateral arrangements with select jurisdictions.
The issue arose in the context of a push by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for nations to adopt multilateral AEOI. The Bahamas committed to bilateral AEOI with select partners under the new standard by the end of 2018.
Delaney and others in the financial and tax law arena say that is the right way to go.
"The bilateral mechanism is an opportunity for the jurisdiction to say that 'this jurisdiction, based on all of our understanding and knowledge, would be able to responsibly use the information for the purposes that we intend to share it'. And then, we might come to a different decision with respect to some other jurisdiction," Delaney said.
"In some countries, financial information could be misused for political purposes, as well as for other criminal purposes, whether it be kidnapping or something else," he added. "[That is] why I say the bilateral mechanism is the appropriate way to go."
Delaney said the other reason to pursue bilateral AEOI is flexibility.
"It gives The Bahamas an opportunity to seek to secure some mutual benefit in making the particular arrangement," he said. "Whenever you are doing something bilaterally, it gives you an opportunity to come to an arrangement that is more tailor-made, more tailored to The Bahamas, and the real opportunities for that will likely come with our major trading partners."
Pointing out the 31 tax information exchange agreements that The Bahamas has already negotiated, Delaney noted that in some cases there are additional benefits for both parties. Shying away from naming any jurisdictions, Delaney said that there are some partners with whom the negotiation of such agreements would likely be "an opportunity for us to have an agreement that benefits us more than simply complying with the Common Reporting Standard... what I would call 'bilateral treaty plus'."

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