The Hummingbird Vol.4 No.12

An assessment of the challenges to Caribbean offshore financial centres: Saint Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda

Offshore Shore Centres (OFCs) are generally small, low tax jurisdictions. In defining International Financial Centers (IFC’s) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) notes that there must be a large number of financial institutions functioning in a simplified regulatory environment, with low or no tax, and with the majority of its transactions initiated offshore. Regional Financial Centres (RFCs) are groups or blocks of countries, viewed as IFCs and which have specialties in the offshore financial business . Many Caribbean islands, including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Mont…

Prospects for blockchain-based settlement frameworks as a resolution to the threat of de-risking to Caribbean financial systems

Caribbean countries have been seriously impacted by the trend toward “de-risking” in the global financial system, and this is damaging to their economic security and the ability of Caribbean businesses to innovate. De-risking is the name given to the tendency of banking institutions to turn away from working relationships and lines of business for which the cost of regulatory compliance—and the risk of non-compliance— is deemed to be too high in comparison to the returns. This is a phenomenon that is affecting developing economies around the world, but the small and vulnerable economies of the…

Exploring financial technology