Part 1 of multipart series on Financial Services
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In its 2003 report the Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB) identified eight areas it considered of \uff93primary interest to members\uff92 in positioning The Bahamas as a \uff93leading international financial centre.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
The critical areas identified by the industry lobby group include change, bureaucracy, financial institutions, human resources, policy, regulatory environment, international recognition and existing business.<\/P><\/p>\n
Managing Change<\/P><\/p>\n
Following the OECD\uffb4s attack on \uff91tax havens\uffb4 through its Financial Action Task Force\uffb4s (FATF) blacklisting exercise, the government of The Bahamas took what it considered necessary steps, including the enactment of several pieces of legislation, designed to bring the jurisdiction in line with \uff93international best practices\uff92.<\/P><\/p>\n
The BFSB report noted that \uff93guidelines are being formulated and published internationally under the guise of \uff93new international standards\uff92 that have not been adopted by the sponsors or the international community.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
In light of the volatile situation created by these unsanctioned \uff93new international standards\uff92 the BFSB report called for \uff93a series of high-level meetings\uff92 among the \uff93various government agencies\uff92 and \uff93representatives of the various professional industry associations\uff92 to develop an \uff93internal response mechanism to international developments.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
The industry lobby group also called for the establishment of what it called a \uff93technical working group\uff92 whose main purpose would be \uff93to discuss on an on-going basis all matters related to international cooperation.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Bureaucracy<\/P><\/p>\n
Acknowledging the newly created Ministry of Financial Services and Investment\uffb4s avowed commitment to a philosophy of \uff93red carpet\uff92 as opposed to that of \uff93red tape\uff92, in facilitating the interaction between the public and private sectors, the BFSB called for \uff93clearly stated policies\uff92 supported by \uff93definitive and transparent rules and procedures.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
A financial services expert who spoke to the Bahama Business Journal on condition of anonymity, referring to the interaction between the public and private sectors said that the jurisdiction could not expect to be taken seriously if its procedures were not clearly stated.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93When an investor is filling out the forms and documents you can\uffb4t come back later and say \uff93Oh you did not fill this out or you have to go back to this ministry or I don\uffb4t know when you will be getting an answer,\uff92 the expert said referring to the way the public sector has interacted with the private sector. <\/P><\/p>\n
The need for a more rational approach to \uff91doing business in The Bahamas\uffb4 for both foreign and Bahamian investors, has long been the cry of Bahamian businesspeople.<\/P><\/p>\n
Businessman Marlon Johnson in an earlier interview wanted to know why was it so hard for someone to \uff93write out the steps you have to go through.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93If you want to open a business you go to Finance on Frederick Street to get a business licence and they ask you if you register the name at Registry on Shirley Street, you register the name and then go back to Frederick Street, then they ask you what kind of business it is you want the licence for if it is a restaurant or food related then they ask you if you been to the Ministry of Health. By the time you finish running around wasting time you have to ask yourself why can\uffb4t somebody in the government print a simple step by step guide to help Bahamians who want to go into business.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
The BFSB addressing this particular problem \uff96 sequential as opposed to parallel processing of applications and proposals \uff96 stated that \uff93we need to move toward a system that works as a fully integrated environment that involves the fewest possible steps.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Recognising that the best policies in the world are useless without dedicated administrators and efficient systems, BFSB report stated that not only must policies be supported by \uff93definitive and transparent rules and procedures\uff92 but these must also be \uff93underpinned by well designed and functioning systems.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Specifically, the BFSB would like to see \uff93industry liaison officers\uff92 dedicated to resolving \uff93bottlenecks to prevent any erosion of client confidence.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
C. E. Huggins, The Bahama Journal<\/B><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minister Gibson has already committed her ministry and the government to replacing red tape with red carpet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}