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BFSB Hosts Fintech 101 Seminar

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On January 24, 2018 The Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) and ALIV partnered to host a financial technology (FINTECH) seminar at The British Colonial Hilton. The event was well attended with over 170 persons representing over fifty member firms. In November 2017, BFSB created a FINTECH Working Group to explore the opportunities for the financial services sector to leverage technology to reposition and grow the industry. The primary aim of the Working Group at this time is education and to increase awareness of the FINTECH opportunities in The Bahamas. We are working on drafting a policy position on FINTECH to make recommendations to the government on how best to create an environment that is conducive to FINTECH. Topics discussed at the workshop included: The Disruptive Effect of Fintech, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, opportunities for the Bahamas among others. “FINTECH is changing the way that we do business and its imperative that we stay we understand the opportunities and create an environment to leverage them. We are very pleased with the interest expressed by our members.” stated BFSB’s CEO Tanya McCartney. The seminar began with a presentation by Mr. Brandon Caruana of Sterling Financial Group. He is a technology leader with over 15 years’ experience in planning, developing and managing the successful roll out of complex technology projects, who spoke about Blockchain Assets and the Distributed Economy. Mr Brian Jones , Managing Director Deltec Fund Services and Mrs. Christel Sands Feaste, Partner at Higgs and Johnson – members of BFSB’s Fintech Working Group who made a presentation on the opportunities for Fintech in the Bahamas, policy considerations and next steps. The event was moderated by Ms. Gravette Brown of Aliv. Aliv sponsored the event and also are members of the Working Group. Related Documents: Blockchain Assets and the Distributed Economy Draft – Bahamas Position Paper on FinTech 2018

BFSB News, Featured, Industry News

S&P Affirms Bahamas Outlook is Stable

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Standard & Poor’s recently published a report on the Commonwealth of the Bahamas affirming its ‘BB+/B’ Ratings and deeming the country’s outlook as stable. RATINGS Foreign Currency: BB+/Stable/B — Local Currency: BB+/Stable/B OVERVIEW • Bahamian political institutions strongly responded to societal priorities in the 2017 election. • We expect the new administration’s solid mandate to facilitate economic and debt stabilization, after significant deterioration. • We are affirming our ‘BB+/B’ long- and short-term sovereign credit ratings on The Commonwealth of The Bahamas. • The stable outlook balances the challenges of overcoming the country’s stubborn economic bottlenecks with the government’s fiscal consolidation plans. Documents S&P Global Ratings Report – Bahamas

BFSB News, Featured, Industry News, Tax Cooperation

Bahamas Signs Multilateral Convention for Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters

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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.

BFSB News, Featured, Industry News, Tax Cooperation

BFSB hosts Timely Seminar on The Common Reporting Standard

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The Bahamas Financial Services Board hosted a very timely seminar to assist financial institu-tions with meeting their obligations under The Common Reporting Standard (CRS). The seminar was held on Tuesday December 12, 2017 and was facilitated by Paul Davis, Partner of Higgs & Johnson law firm and Deputy Chairman of The Bahamas Financial Services Board. There were over 130 attendees. Today the government announced that as it has received the formal invitation to sign The Mul-tilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (“The Convention”) that they will sign the Convention on Friday of this week. The Convention aims to facilitate tax cooperation and is a key component in the OECDs efforts to combat tax evasion, corruption and money laundering. BFSB welcomes the announcement that The Bahamas will formalize its stated intention to adopt the multilateral approach to CRS. This step goes a long way in demon-strating our commitment to being a transparent and cooperative international financial centre. Industry stakeholders welcome the certainty that this brings for the sector. Mr. Davis outlined the Bahamas’ position on CRS and explained the process for ensuring that financial institutions comply. He emphasized that the following steps had to be taken by finan-cial institutions: Identifying Financial Institutions; Reviewing Financial Accounts; Identifying Reportable accounts; Application of Due Diligence rules; and Reporting relevant information to the Competent Authority Mr. Davis distinguished The US Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) obligations from those under CRS. Lastly, he provided practical advice to the professionals concerning the stand-ard for their knowledge and the floor was opened for Q&A. The CEO & Executive Director of BFSB, Miss Tanya McCartney used the opportunity to provide industry practitioners with an update on where the Bahamas was in terms of implementing the Common Reporting Standard. She informed participants that both The Convention and The Mul-tilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) would be signed by the end of this week. She went on to advise that with respect to the MCAA, there is a notification process before the au-tomatic exchange of financial information can take effect between the two Competent Authori-ties and the timing of when exchanges will commence. The list of countries with whom The Ba-hamas intends to exchange was issued in June of 2017 and is set out on the government’s web-site www.taxreporting.finance.gov.bs/. These countries make up an eligible pool with whom The Bahamas may automatically exchange information. Notice will be given with respect to the dates upon which exchanges will take effect between specific countries. Financial institutions should be prepared to commence exchange with all of these countries.

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