Most Nevis banks selling their ownership?

[dav19e]

Hi everyone,

I just formed a Nevis LLC, and i am now looking for the most reputable bank to open a corporate bank account. Therefore, i noticed that RBC, CIBC, Scotiabank and the Bank of Nevis sold the majority of their shares if not all. Any reason for that? It seems as all of these transactions occurred in the past 6 months. Any reason to be skeptical about this?

Thank you, Davis

 

[Sols]

It's not just Nevis. These banks are folding or selling for cheap. Offshore banking is‌ a dying industry. With derisking (correspondent banks throwing out low-revenue, high-risk banks) and increased transparency‍ under initiatives such as FATCA and CRS/AEOI, it's increasingly difficult to operate any meaningfully profitable⁠ offshore bank.

 

[clemens]

Thanks to the Panama Papers and the greedy governments loosing money because of mismanagement !‍

 

[aage]

hmm not really, it's a anonymous source which most probarly has worked for Mossack Fonseca‌ that contacted a German journalist Bastian Obermayer who got the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalists.‍

He is wokring for Süddeutsche Zeitung so I don't believe it is the governments that⁠ filtratet anything. If you read the papers or the book you will see that many⁤ governments and dictators actually are the biggest crime riders here.

 

[tevalerie]

Those banks were never set up for offshore transactions they were set up⁣ for trade in goods, trade in goods in the region has dropped so now regional⁢ banks are buying them. Back in the day, the Canadian Banks were the only ones︀ generating over 20% in interest rates when in their home market in Canada, interest rates︁ were like 3-5%. So the economies have kinda slowed, it is more costly for them︂ to do business because they never invested in technologies or processes to cut down their︃ overheads. Still draconian and old school. So they sold to focus on the existing markets︄ and certain locations that have very strong capital markets.

 

[tevalerie]

You can open one at Capital Security Bank in the Cook islands no⁣ problem or one of the many banks in St. Kitts and Nevis.

 

[FinTech Avenger]

I'm not a very big fan of conspiracy theories, but the publication of Panama Archives⁢ is a highly sophisticated intelligence op In my opinion, with clear beneficiaries (and its not︀ general public). Remember that the whole thing was under patronage of ICIJ, which is a︁ controversial US non-profit.

Regarding sell-off of Nevis banks, you may notice that three out of︂ four banks mentioned by TS belonged to major Canadian banking groups. They've pulled out not︃ only from Nevis, but practically from all Caribbean Commonwealth island nations where they were present︄ because of 1) deriskyfying - they are not able to further support tax evasion without︅ damage to their reputation (and Canada is notoriously known for lax AML enforcement in many︆ aspects), 2) those subsidiaries do not generate sufficient volume of legitimate local business to keep︇ their maintenance rational. Bank of Nevis was another story, catering mainly to the needs of︈ offshore corporate services industry, so its fate of being sold (probably to some Chineses investors?)︉ was more or less expectable.

 

[hernanday]

Three of those are Canadian banks. they "derisked" by pulling out of those⁣ markets.
De-risking is a process where banks drop risky clients due to facing massive fines⁢ for getting caught. This was made worse by a series of major leaks like Panama︀ papers, etc.
When there is public pressure where it looks like you are facilitating tax︁ evasion, banks are large public institutions, they really can't hide it from investors because they︂ are publicly traded, every email and memo can be obtained by any shareholder prying enough.︃

Let me know where you open your account.

 

[unicorn]

CSB bank : sent them an email, 2 weeks later no reply ...

 

[jakonda]

Alright, if offshore banking is a dying industry⁤ what is next? No more offshore banks? Full control and "big brother" like dictatorship? How⁣ will African dictators, Panamanian drug kings, CIA agents, Russian KGB Oil barons work, & ecommerce⁢ /p***O business enthusiasts work ? By using EMIs and shady crypto exchanges...sad if true

 

[Sols]

If you're a⁤ dictator, you usually control a country and its currency, so problem solved. You'll be on⁣ sanctions lists anyway so no EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, and so on for you. Just⁢ have your not-yet-sanctioned ministers and family members open accounts that you effectively control.

Drug lords︀ usually bank with the likes of HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Citibank through bogus (or even︁ real) companies. They'll be fine.

CIA agents usually get their salary paid to their personal︂ bank accounts in the US. Payroll is payroll.

Russian KGB oil barons who are friendly︃ with Putin bank in Russia (or not in Russia if you're not on good terms︄ with Putin), and/or have enough money to deposit with big foreign banks. You wouldn't have︅ seen any Russian oil oligarchs banking with National Bank of Anguilla or Loyal Bank before︆ anyway. At least not any meaningful amounts of money.

Ecommerce: depends on your business type︇ but banking or EMI.

Adult: usually has accounts with banks or EMIs through marketing or︈ consulting businesses.

Regulators know small-time criminals are flocking to EMIs but for now, EMIs are︉ so numerous and diverse it's a cat and mouse game. The EU for example is︊ also hesitant to overregulate EMIs for fear of playing right into the big banks' hands︋ and stifle the EU's precious fintech baby. But we can expect EMIs to start behaving︌ more and more like banks when it comes to KYC. Those who don't will end︍ up suffering.

 

[CSB]

Hello, Apologies that we did not respond to your email, please feel‍ free to email me directly with any queries.

 

[hernanday]

What are the current loopholes︉ in emi?