Daily Compliance News: April 7, 2025, The Whistleblowers Awarded Edition
The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (“CARF”) is an international tax transparency standard developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”). Introduced as an extension of the existing Common...more
Regulatory clarity in the digital assets and crypto space continues to be a moving target. Yet, the interest among policymakers and regulators worldwide has never been more pronounced....more
The Cayman Islands introduced the Virtual Asset (Service Providers) Act (the VASP Act) with effect in 2020, so that any person carrying on a "virtual asset service" in the course of a business using a Cayman Islands entity or...more
All financial service providers are encouraged by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) to prepare for the Fifth Round Mutual Evaluation (Evaluation) of the Cayman Islands by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). ...more
The global regulatory landscape for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) is changing faster than ever. With regulators sharpening their focus on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing obligations, the...more
On Aug. 28, 2024, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule (the Final Rule) extending the scope of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and its amendments by requiring certain...more
Chris Duncan and Alistair Russell have authored the Cayman Islands chapter of Global Legal Insight's sixth edition guide to blockchain and cryptocurrency regulation. The chapter covers the Cayman legal requirements relating...more
Conducting an independent AML audit at a frequency based on the nature, scale and complexity of the entity is a requirement under the AML Regulations. AML audits are an important component of the control environment to...more
How does the beneficial ownership reporting regime developments impact those within the fund governance function? Introduction - As noted in our recent advisory, the Cayman Islands' beneficial ownership reporting...more
Following the end of a long-running process, the Cayman Islands has now officially been removed by the EU Commission from its list of ‘high-risk’ countries for AML/CFT purposes. ...more
Associating the Cayman Islands with money laundering has been a staple of film and television, from "The Firm" in the 1990s to, more recently, "Better Call Saul." However, scriptwriters may need to find another location...more
As the EU removes the Cayman Islands from the EU AML/CFT blacklist with effect from 7 February 2024, concerns and barriers for EU sell- and buy-side parties on securitisations involving Cayman SSPEs fall away....more
Following the removal of the Cayman Islands from the Financial Action Task Force's list of "jurisdictions under increased monitoring" in October 2023, on 12 December 2023, the European Commission adopted the Commission...more
The Cayman Islands recently received an early Holiday gift when the EU Commission published a regulation in mid-December paving the way to remove Cayman from its list of ‘high-risk’ countries for AML/CFT purposes. The...more
The Financial Action Task Force last Friday announced that it was removing the Cayman Islands from its ‘Grey List’ for increased monitoring in AML matters. This listing has had no direct impact on the fund finance world...more
Following industry consultation, on 30 August 2023 the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority ("CIMA") issued updated Guidance Notes on the Prevention and Detection of Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation...more
Walkers' regulatory partners Lucy Frew and Ian Mason consider the learning points for financial services providers (FSPs) from recent enforcement actions by Cayman regulatory bodies. While financial services and related...more
Following the conclusion of the most recent plenary of the Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") on 23 June 2023, the FATF has announced that it has made the initial determination that the Cayman Islands has substantively...more
As widely expected, the British Virgin Islands ("BVI") is shortly bringing into force new legislation to implement the Financial Action Task Force's standards on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (known as...more
On February 21, 2022, Commission Delegated Regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union which will add the Cayman Islands to the list of countries that have been identified by the European Commission...more