In our our original heading to this story we wrongly said “Cayman Islands financial regulator responds …”. We apologise to Cayman Finance. We thank Cayman Finance for pointing out this error to us and clarifying the role of Cayman Finance.

Cayman Finance is a private sector organisation that promotes the development of the Cayman Islands financial services industry through cooperation and engagement with domestic and international political leaders, regulators, organisations and media, we also promote the integrity and transparency of the Industry by legislative and regulatory enactment and to encourage the sustainable growth of the Industry through innovation, education and integration.

The financial services regulator is the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Cayman Finance responds to Australian Senator’s comments

Cayman Finance today responded to statements made by Labour frontbencher Senator Sam Dastyari concerning companies registered in the Cayman Islands.

Mr Dastyari was criticizing Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for using Cayman Islands vehicles to manage his investments.

“The statement unfortunately seeks to perpetuate a common misconception that the Cayman Islands is a tax haven,” said Mr Jude Scott CEO of Cayman Finance.

Mr. Scott says that the fact that Mr. Dastyari acknowledged that the activities of the Prime Minister were perfectly legal suggests that the statements were merely politically motivated.

“Clients using Cayman Islands vehicles are required by their resident countries to pay the tax relevant to them under their laws and indeed based on the statements of the Prime Minister this appears to be the case in this instance”, added Mr. Scott.

“We are therefore surprised that Mr. Dastyari would conclude that the use of Cayman Islands vehicles is ‘unfair’ or ‘not right’ “.

“As much of the world now knows, the Cayman Islands has demonstrated significant leadership in the area of cross border cooperation on tax matters, be it our signing of over 30 tax information exchange agreements, our industry’s compliance with FATCA or our status as one of the early commitment countries under the OECD’s Common Reporting Standards (CRS)”, said Mr. Scott.

See related iNews Cayman story published October 14 2015 “Cayman Islands like an offshore detention centre for your money, Australian PM says” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/cayman-islands-like-an-offshore-detention-centre-for-your-money-australian-pm-says-2/