The Malta Financial Services Authority has published guidelines regarding the redomiciliation of offshore funds to Malta under the Companies Act, Continuation of Companies Regulations, 2002. The guidelines specify the documentation required from fund promoters and outline the way the process is handled by the authorisation unit and the registry of

The Bahamas has concluded Tax Information Exchange Agreement negotiations with 23 countries, signed ten agreements and will meet the G20/OECD’s March 2010 deadline of a minimum of 12 signed agreements. To date, The Bahamas has signed ten TIEAs with the US, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, China, France, New Zealand,

HM Revenue & Customs has clarified what constitutes a bank following its announcement on 9 December that it will be implementing a bank payroll tax. According to Kinetic Partners, HMRC has confirmed that the bank payroll tax is aimed at retail and investment banks and to banking groups and does

The partners at law firms Lovells and Hogan & Hartson have decided to merge the two firms.  The new firm will be called Hogan Lovells and will have approximately 2,500 lawyers operating out of more than 40 offices located around the world. Subject to regulatory clearances, Hogan Lovells will come

Current attempts to tighten the regulation of financial services could lead to regulatory arbitrage among countries, according to a survey by advisory firm Kinetic Partners. The survey, which was carried out by Kinetic Partners at an industry event held last week, found that this may weaken, rather than strengthen, supervision

HM Revenue & Customs intends to consult on how to ensure the enterprise investment scheme is targeted appropriately at businesses. Richard Hoskins (pictured), manager private client services at Oxford Capital, says some providers have been using limited partnerships to abuse the EIS rules.  “If advisers and investors back products aiming