Bermuda Represented At IFC London Conference
Bermuda’s international business sector was represented at last month’s London conference on off-shore business domiciles organised by The Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Financial Centre Forum
The event was staged on October 20 and 21 in London.
The event examined the role of small international financial centres [IFCs] in the global economy and included perspectives from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development [OECD], governments, business leaders, respected academics and the media.
The conference called on the OECD and G20 group of leading economies to adopt a more constructive approach to dealing with small IFCs, which included securing a commitment to work in a more collaborative partnership and the adoption of a more balanced tone which drops the use of words like tax haven.
The IFC Forum was created in 2009 against a backdrop of a world that was becoming increasingly hostile and aggressive towards small international financial centres.
It was formed with the purpose of providing policymakers with authoritative and balanced information on the vital role that IFCs play in the global economy and thereby counteracting the negative sentiments which were increasingly gaining traction.
International law firms — including Bermuda’s Attride-Stirling & Woloniecki, Appleby and Conyers, Dill & Pearman — have backed the profile-boosting IFC.
One of the major themes which emerged during the conference was the need for much closer cooperation and partnership between the private and public sector in pressing the case with multi-lateral organisations, including the OECD and G20, for small-state IFCs to continue to operate in the global economy.
This theme seems to be several years behind the times. “Offshore Financial Centres” are now the brunt of worldwide criticism. This does not only target “small-state IFC’s”.
Delaware, London are now included and recognised as a hiderance to global stability and transparency in world finance system. These G20 countries are in fact placing more and more resources, regulation and focus on OFC’s. Driven by the need for tax revenue, but also to stem the tide of organized white collar crime.
WAKE UP BERMUDA! Playing the victim will not work!