Dominic Wheatley, Chief Executive of Guernsey
Finance, says that the island strikes the right balance between
privacy and secrecy for private clients.
The subtle distinction between privacy and secrecy was brought
to the fore this summer in the Houses of Parliament.
Guernsey was concerned by efforts to force Britain's Crown
Dependencies to make their registers of beneficial ownership open
to public inspection, particularly as the move threatened to
overturn a constitutional position dating back nearly 1,000 years
that Parliament cannot choose to legislate for the islands on their
domestic issues.
Parliament instead agreed that the British Overseas Territories
– including Bermuda and the Cayman Islands – must set
up public ownership registers by the end of 2020, or have them
imposed by the UK.
