For the first time ever, the company accounts and hedge funds based in the Cayman Islands will have to make public their financial records, according to reforms proposed by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA).
The territory wants to move away from its reputation as a secrecy-shrouded tax haven, according to the Financial Times, which reported it had seen the reform proposals CIMA sent to account heads. In addition to creating a database that will catalog the names of companies and their directors, the reforms aim to implement a vetting process to test the qualifications of said directors, the FT reported.
With these proposed changes, CIMA likely seeks to avoid tax schemes that have made it highly unpopular in certain circles. Politicians and investors alike tend to resent news such as that of the $700 million that Facebook hid in the Cayman Islands last year to avoid paying British taxes, and news investigations suggest those sums are just the tip of the iceberg: a Guardian report in 2012 estimated that jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands and Switzerland collected between $8.19 and $12.6 trillion out of the taxable economy.