Caribbean nations warned to strengthen financial regulations

Caribbean nations have been put on warning that they may face blacklisting and sanctions if their financial regulations are not strong.



They have been given only six months to do it, according to a report on www.caribbean360.com.



This is according to Britain\'s Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, who spoke to various media houses ahead of a meeting of finance officials from the G7 nations and the International Monetary Fund\'s semiannual meeting, which began Sunday in Turkey.



\"It is not good for financial stability that some companies can operate out of a Caribbean island and shelter behind a veil of secrecy, and we don\'t know what they are up to,\" Darling said.



\"If you don\'t comply you get until March next year, then you will be blacklisted,\" he said.



He revealed that when G20 finance ministers meet in November, the group\'s Financial Stability Board would prepare a provisional blacklist of regulatory havens, as a grey list of countries that should tighten standards.



The move is similar to what the G20 nations did in April when the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a list of so-called tax havens, categorising jurisdictions in three categories: the white list of those that have substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard; a grey list of those who had made commitments to, but had not yet fully complied; and a blacklist of countries which have not committed to the standard.



At the time Barbados was the only country in the region that was on the white list while most Caribbean countries were grey listed.



Several others have since signed tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) with more OECD member nations in an effort to be promoted to the white list.