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George Town, Grand Cayman – The Cayman Islands Government today announced the extension of comprehensive tax information assistance to seven new countries, under provisions in the Tax Information Authority Law introduced in 2008, which do not require a bilateral treaty.
The seven countries now able to request tax information from the Cayman Islands under this unilateral mechanism are Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovak Republic and Switzerland. Requests may be made in relation to both civil/administrative and criminal tax matters.
“The Cayman Islands was one of the first jurisdictions to commit to OECD standards for transparency and exchange of information in tax matters. We have upheld that commitment by working with OECD and non-OECD colleagues to design effective standards, by reflecting those standards in our domestic regime, and then embarking on a programme to extend assistance arrangements to other countries; the first being our tax information agreement with the U.S. signed in 2001,” said the Leader of Government Business, the Honourable Kurt Tibbetts.
Minister Tibbetts added, “Our actions today in extending tax information assistance to seven more countries is the culmination of many months of technical work, and we are especially grateful to Germany for the insight they were able to provide by virtue of having a unilateral mechanism for cooperation in tax matters themselves.”
The unilateral mechanism is complementary to Cayman’s bilateral negotiation programme. The latest development in that area was the conclusion of technical negotiations with the Nordic countries for a series of bilateral agreements, including tax information agreements. The seven tax information agreements are currently going through the political authorisation process on both sides, to enable execution at a signing ceremony in Stockholm on 1 April 2009, with the commercial agreements to follow in June 2009.
Minister Tibbetts concluded by stating that the Cayman Islands also looks forward in the immediate term to concluding bilateral arrangements with the United Kingdom.
For more information
Ted Bravakis Director, Public Relations Unit Portfolio of Finance & Economics P +1 (345) 244 2266 E ted.bravakis@gov.ky www.caymanfinance.gov.ky
CityWire – Premier Asset Management has hired former Thames River hedge fund specialist Chris Wright to take control of the Premier Dividend Fund from Paul Branigan.
Branigan, who also manages an absolute return growth mandate and is chief investment officer of Premier, is handing over to Wright as he wishes to concentrate on his other duties at the group.
Wright, who managed a number of hedge funds for Thames River, joins Premier on 1 September.
Wright is expected to restructure the Dividend Fund when he arrives, which could see it employ a similar strategy to the one used by the Schroder Income Maximiser Acc fund.
Managing director of sales and marketing, Simon Weldon, said: ‘Chris brings a lot of pan European equity experience with him and has been on both sides of the buy-sell fence so we are confident he will make an excellent addition to the team.
FINalternatives- Hedge fund seeder Capital Z Asset Management has hired a Bear Stearns veteran to head up its marketing effort and support its portfolio funds.
James Marrone was named a partner and chief marketing officer at New York-based CZAM. Marrone joins after a decade at Bear Stearns Asset Management, where he led corporate institutional sales. Prior to joining BSAM, Marrone was director of marketing at Capital Management Associates.
“Jim’s appointment underscores out commitment not only to our currently sponsored hedge funds and those that we intend to sponsor, but also to our institutional investors who are interested in seeding the next wave of hedge fund managers,” Christianna Wood, CEO of CZAM, said. “Jim is a respected industry veteran with broad sales and marketing experience of alternative products.”
