Members of the public in the Cayman Islands can now view the names of current directors of companies incorporated there, following the coming into effect of the Companies (Amendment) Law 2019 and Limited Liability Companies (Amendment) Law 2019 on 1 October. The legislation is required to meet the recommendations set out in the Caribbean Financial...Read More

From the end of 2019, expatriate US persons must provide their US tax identification number (TIN) to their local banks, or risk having their bank accounts closed or frozen. Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which came into effect in July 2014, all foreign financial institutions (FFIs) must identify their US clients and...Read More

British Overseas Territories’ deadline for public ownership registers slips to 2023 Britain’s Overseas Territories (OT) will not be forced to establish public registries of company beneficial ownership until 2023 at the earliest, rather than the 2020 deadline demanded by UK Members of Parliament (MPs), it has emerged. In May last year, a cross-party group of...Read More

The coming extension of the online UK Trust Registration Service (TRS) to cover express trusts without any tax consequences, under the EU Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD), is likely to extend the number of registrable trusts from around 200,000 to as many as two million, according to the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT). The service...Read More

Cyprus attempts to withdraw banking facilities from shell companies   Cyprus’s Central Bank is drafting a directive stating that financial institutions should no longer open new accounts or maintain existing accounts for shell or letter-box companies. Advance warning of the move was given in a circular issued to regulated financial institutions on 14 June, advising...Read More