Bermuda premier Burt confident ahead of AML review results
Bermuda premier David Burt said he has a “complete expectation” that the ongoing EU review into anti money laundering (AML) and other regulatory issues on the island will confirm Bermuda’s high standards.
In March this year, Bermuda was temporarily placed on the EU’s blacklist of “non-cooperative jurisdictions in tax matters” after it missed an EU compliance deadline. The EU blacklist flags up nations that need to improve global tax governance and fight tax fraud, evasion and avoidance. The territory had been required to outline how it would address concerns that companies domiciled there might not be conducting sufficient business of economic substance. While it was removed from the blacklist in May, the territory was then placed on the EU's greylist for further scrutiny.
However, speaking at the Bermuda Executive Forum in London this week, ahead of the imminent release of the review’s findings, Burt said: “Bermuda has incredibly high standards and it is my complete expectation that those high standards will be confirmed at the end of this review. And I expect that from a compliance rating, Bermuda’s standard of laws and regulations around anti money laundering will be remarked on as one of the best, if not the best, in the world.”
He told forum attendees that his government “has spent an incredible amount of time working on this because we are serious about being an extraordinary country in which to do business”.
He added: “I believe that the [country’s] ratings, which are going to be public soon, will be a reminder to the entire world that Bermuda takes financial crime very seriously and it is not a jurisdiction where you go to get away with financial crime.”
This positive view of Bermuda was echoed by other speakers at the event. Dominic Thomas-James, a senior research fellow at the Centre for International Documentation on Organised and Economic Crime in Cambridge in the UK, said that his work examining overseas territories found that Bermuda is “a leading jurisdiction particularly in the context of responding to standards to tackle financial crime”. He also said that the territory is a valued partner to the international community in tackling these sorts of shared problems.
“I was struck by Bermuda’s professional structure, insurance industry and other leading markets,” Thomas-James said, adding: “It clearly has an ability to draw good talent.
“Once you have that ability and professional infrastructure it allows you the ability to comply with international standards in so far as they may be suitable. It becomes a lot easier, and it’s something that a lot of other smaller jurisdictions, which specialise in off-shore financial services and sophisticated businesses services, have difficulty with.”
PwC Carribean’s regional markets leader, insurance leader and Bermuda territory leader Arthur Wightman said Bermuda has taken a leading role in regulations and innovation.
Moderating an onstage panel discussion on disruption and opportunity at the event, Wightman also praised the territory’s efforts in moving towards being a technology incubator and entrepreneurial centre on the world stage.
Panel discussion guest Robert Childs, non executive director at Hiscox, told attendees: “If you’re in business you have to be where transactions are happening and Bermuda is a very important market.” He also said that the territory had been ahead of others in accommodating insurance linked securities business, which is why he started doing business there more than a decade ago.
