With respect to the announcement that The Bahamas has formally acceded to The Multilateral Convention on the Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (“The Multilateral Convention”), Th Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) and Association of International Bank & Trust Companies (AIBT) acknowledge that arriving at this point has required much collaboration between the government and industry stakeholders. This multilateral approach is consistent with that taken by over 108 countries in The OECD’s Global Forum, which addresses the risks to tax compliance posed by non-cooperative jurisdictions.

The legislative framework for implementation of The Common Reporting Standard was initially put in place by The Bahamas in 2016 to facilitate the automatic exchange of information, with most recent amendments being made this month to reflect the change from a bilateral to multilateral approach. As a responsible private sector, we will continue to actively engage with the government on this and other important initiatives impacting the sector in the best interest of our stakeholders.

We support the government taking the necessary steps to avoid any adverse impact to The Bahamas as an international financial centre and to pursue initiatives that position this jurisdiction for sustainable growth and development.