Cayman Legislative Changes Demonstrate Island's Ongoing Commitment To Global Transparency

The spotlight of the international community is shining more brightly than ever on International Financial Centres and those who use them in an effort to reduce aggressive tax avoidance, tax evasion and other practices which are perceived to be practiced largely through offshore structures. To assist global efforts to tackle tax evasion and corruption and to increase transparency, the Cayman Islands government has amended its companies law and has proposed a fundamental overhaul of its confidentiality laws.

Companies Law

On 13 May 2016 the Companies (Amendment) Law 2016 came into force. The purpose of the amendment is to remove the power of Cayman Islands exempted companies to issue bearer shares and other forms of negotiable shares. A new section 231A is inserted into the Companies Law which (i) prohibits the issue of any new bearer shares after 13 May 2016, and (ii) provides that all existing bearer shares must be converted into registered shares before 13 July