Roadtown, Tortola - Premier and Minister of Finance Hon. Ralph T. O’Neal OBE has welcomed the visit of Head of United Kingdom Government Independent Review of British Offshore Financial Centres, Mr. Michael Foot and his team from the UK Treasury who are conducting a Review of British Offshore Financial Centres.

Mr. Foot will be meeting the Premier and Deputy Premier Honourable Dancia Penn, OBE, QC on March 23 to hear first hand the Government’s views on the review and the importance of financial services to the Territory.  Mr. Foot is due to arrive in the Territory on Saturday following visits to the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. The team will leave on Tuesday, March 24. 

The International Finance Centre has organised a programme of visits for Mr. Foot and his team which include Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Financial Services Commission, Mr. Robert Mathavious, the Attorney General  Hon. Kathleen Quartey and Financial Secretary Mr. Neil Smith. The team is also expected to meet with Members of the House of Assembly and officials of the private sector.  The review team has already met with Ms Dawn Smith, Director of the BVI’s London Office, in preparation for this visit.

Commenting on the review, the Premier stated ”the BVI Government has already welcomed this review led by Mr. Michael Foot because we are confident that the BVI’s finance centre and our regulatory system will perform well under any international scrutiny.”

Noting that “Government is committed to global standards of regulation and to co-operation in exchange of information and transparency,” the Premier said, “we believe that this review will give us the opportunity to demonstrate again that we have a robust finance centre of the highest repute.”
 
He added, “we look forward to working with Mr. Foot and his team and we know that they are already aware of the positive Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce report we received in December 2008 and the recognition that BVI has had from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for being compliant with standards of effective exchange of information and transparency.  This visit will begin a process of dialogue which we expect will have a positive outcome for the Territory”

The UK Government Independent Review of British Offshore Financial Centres was announced in the November 2008 UK Budget.  The review team will be working with the Overseas Territories with finance centres (Virgin Islands (UK), Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos) and the Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man). The goal is to identify opportunities and current and future risks in financial supervision, transparency and taxation, in relation to financial stability; sustainable future competitiveness; financial crisis management and international cooperation.