OFFSHORE LAWS AMENDED.

The St. Vincent & the Grenadines Parliament has amended two laws in a package of offshore legislation to tighten existing loopholes in the wake of a financial advisory issued by the U.S., Canada and Japan against this country's offshore center, reports CANA (July 21, 2000):

Finance Minister Arnhim Eustace presented the amendments to the International Banks 1996 Act as well as the Confidential Relationships Preservation (International Finance) 1996 Act, one week after the Offshore Finance Authority revoked the licenses of six offshore banks which have been accused of failing to comply with the International Banks Act;

"Part of the difficulty that we are facing is that our present Confidentiality Act is restrictive in terms of the extent to which we could co-operate with other regulatory agencies or any country seeking to get information which is deemed confidential in our present act," Eustace said. Only in cases where there is a named defendant did the original act allow a response "and that went a long way in terms of deeming our jurisdiction as un-cooperative". The amendments give greater latitude both to the Offshore Inspector and the Minister of Finance to provide information in cases where other countries or jurisdictions are trying to bring a charge against a person.