Consulting firm: Exciting times ahead

While the regulatory fallout for international business jurisdictions  has been viewed with trepidation by some since the global financial crisis, one international financial consultant thinks Barbados is in a good position to profit from coming changes.Jérôme de Lavenère Lussan, founder and chief executive officer of the London-based Laven Partners consulting  firm, is of the opinion  that there are “exciting opportunities” ahead  for this island as businesses look to move away from jurisdictions that have not been as “cautious” as Barbados has been in terms of the types of businesses it licenses and regulates.As he addressed the April monthly luncheon  of the Barbados International Business Association (BIBA) recently, Lussan said  that Barbados’ immediate positioning on the top tier of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation  and Development  “white list” of tax- transparent jurisdictions was “phenomenal” in helping firms like his  promote Barbados to international investors.He added that Barbados needed to use the momentum gained from that to go “one step further” and enthusiastically market the island, especially in the area of fund management, because  it had the potential to  be “the Luxembourg  of the Caribbean”.Lussan told BIBA members at the Savannah Hotel in Hastings, Christ Church, that despite Barbados’ being a  well-regulated, well-respected jurisdiction,  it was not as well known for its financial industry among international investors as the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands. Lussan raised the concern that Barbados’ lack of membership in the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was harming its chances as a jurisdiction of first choice. Although Barbados is a member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force,  Lussan noted that some international institutions were prohibited for compliance reasons from conducting business in countries that were not FATF members.  (PR)