According to Cayman News Service, the publication of the laws will open another 21-day window for public and industry comment before the bills go to the Legislative Assembly.

Once approved by the Legislative Assembly, they will provide the framework for the platform to be up and running by the end of June 2017.

Not public

Financial services minister, Wayne Panton, said: “Currently, fewer than a dozen countries around the world have introduced or plan to introduce pubic registers.

“Cayman is not one of those countries, and we will not do so until this is the accepted and implemented international standard.

“We do, however, recognise that there has been a strong push globally for greater transparency and information exchange, and that Cayman must act in order to protect our reputation as a leading international financial centre.”

A revised Companies (Amendment) Bill (2017), the initial consultation period for which only closed on 9 December, and the Limited Liability Companies (Amendment) Bill (2017) will be gazetted in the week leading up to Christmas.

This will trigger the second public consultation period of 21 days, in accordance with the Cayman constitution.

UK connection

Panton explained that the legislative amendments stem from discussions between Cayman and the UK about enhancing the exchange of information arrangements between the two countries’ tax, regulatory and legal authorities.

“The conversation began in earnest in June 2013, with the UK’s chairing of the G8 Summit,” he said.

“That’s when Cayman – as well as the other UK crown dependencies and overseas territories – agreed with the UK to assess if establishing central registers of the natural persons who ultimately have beneficial ownership and control of companies would enhance domestic legal compliance, and also allow easier access to this information by authorities in the jurisdictions with which the [crown dependencies] and [overseas territories] have legal agreements to exchange information.”