It was a very interesting first speech by Cayman Islands’ new Minister for Financial Services, Wayne Panton, in the Legislative Assembly last week.

After intimating that attitudes towards the Cayman Islands may be changing based on “anecdotal evidence” of this on the part of experts and the technocrats who understood our important role “in the global financial architecture”, he said Cayman would not be getting any ringing endorsements.

“We are not going to get any ringing endorsements of the Cayman Islands, not while most of world is engaged in discussions about austerity and how to increase revenues, not while they refuse to consider that a lot of the issues are their domestic tax policies, which have created the imbalance and are stifling a lot of cross border and global investments,” he said.

However, particularly in European Union circles there was a very subtle but “discernible change in which the Cayman Islands are discussed at the technocratic level,” he cautiously added.

Panton also shot down ex premier McKeeva Bush’s expected and almost worn out tirade, still on repeat mode, that everyone but himself is showing their willingness to race to please their handlers by signing away the very backbone and lifeblood of the Cayman Islands. Bush questioned the government’s strategy and the “impending negative consequences on the proposed new multilateral agreements that the new government has just committed these islands to.”

Panton pointed out that all of the OTs and crown dependencies have now made similar commitments as the Cayman Islands to join and commit to the OECD’s Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. He said this included Bermuda who had been misquoted that they had committed to nothing and signed nothing. They were now committing to it Panton claimed.

The Financial Services Minister had high praise for staff within the Financial Services Ministry, as well as staff at Cayman Islands Monetary Authority and the Attorney General Chambers. He said the ministry had continued to keep industry up to date in the shift from exchange of information on request to a new standard of automatic exchange.

He also assured the House the Cayman Islands financial industry supported the government joining the G5 pilot and the convention. He said extensive consultation had taken place with Cayman Finance who represented the industry.

Even though Mr. Bush was not impressed, I was, and so were a lot of persons who matter.