A Report published by The Associated Press yesterday indicated that the European Union is poised to produce a list of countries and territories which make tax crimes easier and has singled out and names The Bahamas as being included on that List. This is most unfortunate as this is in no way true or reflective of this jurisdiction.

The Bahamas is a clean, compliant jurisdiction with a robust regulatory regime. We have a strong anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing system and have been deemed to be largely compliant by the standards set by The Financial Action Task Force. Moreover, two years ago, The Bahamas executed an inter governmental Agreement with The United States of America and have implemented FATCA for the automatic exchange of Financial Account Tax information with the Internal Revenue Service in the USA through the Ministry of Finance which is the competent authority here in this jurisdiction.

Further, our regulatory obligations as it relates to the OECD and the members of the Global forum are being met as we speak. We are firm in our commitment to a 2018 reporting date for the automatic exchange of information. Much of the work has been done to that end as the enabling legislation for the automatic exchange of information under the common reporting standard has been enacted, regulations are set for completion by the end of this month and Guidance notes will follow shortly after. We have also initiated the negotiations on a bi lateral basis with at least 45 countries who are members of the Global Forum including the countries of the European Union. In effect we have complied with the rules set by the OECD as it relates to the overarching principals of transparency in tax matters. We intend to continue to follow the rules and to comply.

One would assume that following the rules set by our peers would result in acceptance that we intend to operate with integrity and a sense of commitment. Unfortunately that is not the case in this increasingly competitive environment that is financial services.

Therefore, I wish to state categorically that we are not a jurisdiction that encourages or tolerates tax crimes and are moving expeditiously to meet the 2018 deadline for the automatic exchange of information through the implementation of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).

Bahamas Information Services