Insights

When things go horribly wrong; Lehman, Madoff and the global financial crisis of 2008/2009 In the third episode of our Funds Download podcast our host and the Global Head of Funds and Regulatory, Philip Graham, is joined by the Co-Head of Funds and Regulatory in the Cayman Islands, Matt Taber, the Global Head of Dispute Resolution, Phillip Kite and the Head of Dispute Resolution in the Cayman Islands, Nick Hoffman, to share their collective insights and knowledge acquired from the crash in 2008 and its aftermath.

Cyprus is one of the most attractive tax planning jurisdictions. Its favourable taxation system together with its excellent infrastructure facilities and high quality of services have led Cyprus to be considered as one of the most reputable international financial centres.

Contrary to the commonly-held misconception of offshore jurisdictions as secretive black holes of information, in reality, the major offshore jurisdictions of Bermuda, BVI and the Cayman Islands maintain a host of information on companies, trusts and other structures, which is available to sufficiently interested third parties. This article, first published in Latinvex, considers what information can be obtained in these jurisdictions by the general public, private litigants and foreign bankruptcy appointees. As will be seen, asset-tracers will be well-advised to take advantage of the wealth of information on offer in these jurisdictions at an early stage of any investigation.

Our podcast series Practically Speaking, was launched to provide our listeners with practical advice and insights on issues applicable to stakeholders of BVI entities.

We are all aware of the worldwide personal, financial and economic impacts of COVID-19. If not already, COVID-19 consequences will extend to finance and security agreements and parties should consider how they may be affected and should begin considering how they can mitigate the impact. Most experts agree that a global recession is inevitable and may have a circular effect on finance: if businesses cannot afford to repay their loans, the banks will not lend; if the banks do not lend then many businesses will not have working capital to fund business operations, leading to their demise.

The near collapse of the Cyprus economy back in 2013 was the instigator for the introduction of a new generation of amendments into the Cyprus companies’ legislation (Cap. 113) providing for a new array of tools which could be utilised with the intention of protecting businesses and buttressing the economy from the then expected adverse consequences a potential depletion of liquidity brought about by the 2013 banking crisis could have on them. Those same tools stand now at the ready to be used by businesses to tackle the difficulties presented to them by the COVID-19 and the new ensuing global recession following in the pandemic’s wake.