The Bahamas Investor

...ard? Coming from societies that fashion ourselves modern, it sounds like a practice from our ancient past. For residents of Cat Island, a population center in The Bahamas’ southern region, access to cash deposits is no laughing matter. It has only been 10 years since Cat Island got its first commercial bank. One local business owner remembers his father’s practice of keeping money under the mattress. While the business owner uses the local bank to......

...ance Institute of The Bahamas, who also will participate on the evaluation committee for selecting scholarship recipients. Especially targeted are those persons who are interested in the captives sector and who have an intention to work in or to assist the industry. While there is no means test involved in consideration, senior executives will not be considered for the scholarship. The 2017 Scholarship will be awarded to facilitate enrollment in t......

...released peer review reports assessing the tax systems of 13 jurisdictions for information exchange. Later this year, most of these reviews will feed into the ratings assigned to 50 jurisdictions, backing G20 and Global Forum efforts to strengthen tax cooperation and stamp out cross-border tax evasion. The new reports cover key players in a move toward greater tax co-operation. The 11 “Phase 2” reports review the exchange of information in practic......

...ings that make him happy: career, competition and family. To help others become more competitive, Holowesko helped found a cycling team, VMG Cycling, which supports promising young Bahamian and foreign athletes to participate in national and international competitions. Whether it’s crossing the finish line or measuring a return on investment, the end results are what motivate this ironman investor. “That’s what’s fun about this job,” Holowesko say......

...mation are public goods. In the wider society we also have to increase our comfort level with sharing personal information for research and data analysis. The work of the Department of Statistics, for example, is made enormously more difficult because of the skepticism that exists with sharing information. To overcome this cultural aversion we will need to do a better job as policy makers and data scientists at demonstrating the results of using d......

...to enhance portfolio diversification, or to implement sector rotations or simply for hedging strategies. The applications are endless. ETFs and The Bahamas The domestic capital market in The Bahamas is still in its developing stage. Traditional commercial bank financing, whether through bilateral lending or syndicated loans, still remains by far the main funding tool for the private sector. At present, ETFs are not available in the domestic stock......

...in a competitive sense). lead to exemption creep as non-exempt sectors lobby for exemptions, which can quickly undermine the success of the VAT system. Accordingly, we have decided, along with the significantly reduced VAT rate, that the list of exemptions should be pared substantially, compared to what was initially proposed. Specifically, no goods will be exempted. As for services, the list of exemptions has been tightened to include only the f......

...ts that Tiamo is not for everyone and she tries to screen potential guests by recommending other vacation spots in The Bahamas for those who want casinos, television and nightclubs along with their sun, sea and sand. Changing the world If Mike sounds a bit sheepish in calling Tiamo a “resort,” it is only because of its relatively small size. Eleven bungalows do not provide the economies of scale to make one rich as a resort owner, he confesses. St......

...ect customs duties, fees and fines. No thought was given to an income tax, for example, because the population was too small and too scattered to support one, and, in any case, there was very little income to tax. Even in the 20th century, when governance of the colony passed to a group of local merchant politicians, they quickly rejected the notion of an income tax since they would only have been taxing themselves. “The fact there is no income ta......

...development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets”, has been moving at an increased pace. The depth and breadth of financial globalization is unprecedented, largely due to technological advances which has allowed financial services centres to modernize interconnectivity between global economies, attract more foreign direct investment and......

...y get and where they are coming from. “Advertisers are looking to buy into an audience–targetting the user rather than specific placements. There is now huge importance placed on performance–looking to drive performance once a user arrives at the client’s website.” As for the brand name, again de Villiers stressed the importance of keeping it simple. “You have to set yourself apart, be unique and different, but your brand name has to speak to what......

...otel’s website? Are you utilizing a responsive design? Are you effectively communicating messages across all platforms? Learn the tweaks and upgrades needed to make hotels thrive on the Internet. Cutting Through the Channel Clutter – Is your hotel optimizing channel management to maximize revenue? Where do you rank with Extranets, GDS, direct bookings, Expedia, Booking.com? Learn how to cut through the clutter and effectively handle content manage......

...te, the entire Bahamian archipelago stands to benefit. “I think Eleuthera, for example, is the sleeping giant,” says Damianos. “Beautiful beaches, three international airports and lots of room for development.” Carey says that by keeping an eye on the developers, the realty company can see where the interest for investment is. “Wherever the developers start activities, they obviously feel that the market there is recovering and that the consumers......

...elines. A red-lined version of the AML/CFT/PF Guidelines showing all of the substantive changes made to the Guidelines to date, will be posted to the Bank’s website during the month of October 2018. Read/download here: Press Release Corrigendum......

...ield executives will also host a conference call for investors to discuss the results May 1, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. ET. Callers may access the conference call via the investor relations page of Butterfield’s website , or by dialing +1 (844) 855 9501 (toll-free) or +1 (412) 858 4603 (international). A replay of the call will be archived on the Butterfield website following the live call.......