Cayman Finance and the Cayman Islands Government have reached an MOU. This is a major event in the history of our industry, as this commitment paves the way towards a stronger unified voice for the financial services industry in Cayman.
As our industry grew at an extremely accelerated pace in just over 20 years and the international financial centres were not under the constant pressures of today, different sectors of the industry created their own associations to educate and promote their particular interest. With the significant growth of the overall industry, the number and size of these associations continued to grow.
By contrast, many of our competitor jurisdictions did not have the size to promote a large number of associations or had not created them by the time the international pressure started to grow, making the need for a unified front more obvious. Therefore, Cayman's financial industry has lacked a unified front as most of our competitors have, including Bermuda, Jersey, and Guernsey to name just a few.
While there is still a role to be played by the individual associations focusing on particular issues relevant to their members, it is clearer every day that in the global economy we live in, the different associations and companies are more likely to be facing the same challenges driven by the international media, NGO, and global initiatives. The MOU is a sign by the Government of the Cayman Islands and the growing number of members of Cayman Finance of the urgent need of such advocacy.
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