By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian financial services industry is targeting reforms to existing products that will enable it to penetrate new markets, with the goal of becoming the “Singapore for Latin America”.

Tanya McCartney, the Bahamas Financial Services Board’s (BFSB) chief executive, told Tribune Business that the sector was working with the Government to “refine and upgrade” its existing product menu.

She revealed that amendments to the Trustee Act, the ICON (Investment Condominium) Act and the Segregated Accounts Companies (SAC) Act, the latter of which will be targeted towards the captive insurance industry, were all being actively discussed.

“These are some of the things we’re working on, to the extent that we are fine tuning and innovating with existing products,” Ms McCartney told this newspaper.

“That’s where the focus will be to the extent that we can refine them to create solutions for new markets. To the extent that we need to refine products, we will update the legislation.”

As an example, Ms McCartney said proposed changes to the ICON Act were designed to allow the Bahamas to penetrate other Latin American markets, beyond Brazil, with this product.”

Speaking after the BFSB’s annual International Business and Finance Summit (IBFS), held in Abaco at the weekend, Ms McCartney said the financial services industry had reviewed its strategic plan that was drawn up in 2010.

That document was benchmarked against the progress made over the past five years in implementing its objectives, with those goals also assessed to see if they were still relevant.

“We wanted to look at the Bahamas’ value proposition in the changing global environment,’ Ms McCartney added. “There were certain themes that came out, and we wanted to put a value proposition together.”

All international financial centres (IFCs), including the Bahamas, are currently determining their identity and ‘reason for being’, and the strategic and competitive advantages they can exploit to attract clients and grow their industries.

Ms McCartney said the Bahamas was viewed as a leading jurisdiction for private wealth management, and “had a diverse tool kit of products to offer high net worth individuals”.

“It differentiates us from other jurisdictions, as they tend to be one product shops,” the BFSB chief executive added, alluding to Bermuda’s focus on the insurance industry and Cayman’s specialisation in investment funds.

Those two regional IFC rivals have focused on institutional business, as opposed to private clients, and Ms McCartney added: “The Bahamas has what these people are looking for, and should be the jurisdiction of choice.

“What we saw as the value proposition is that we could act as the hub for Latin America. Just as Singapore is for Asia, the Bahamas could be for Latin America.”

Ms McCartney suggested that the way forward for the Bahamian financial services industry, based on the sector’s IBFS discussions, is to build on its private wealth management foundations and “trying to hone what we have today”.

She added that the Bahamas would continue to focus on the markets it had targeted for the past five years, namely Brazil and Latin America and Asia (China).

The Bahamas’ new Ambassador to China, Paul ‘Andy’ Gomez, has been supplied with the necessary promotional material to advocate for the Bahamian financial services industry, and Ms McCartney said there was “still room for more market penetration” in those two area.

Another potential growth area for the Bahamas is the attraction, and expansion, of boutique firms and family offices.

Encouraging clients to follow their assets to the Bahamas and domicile here as permanent residents also enables them to avoid home country taxes in Europe and other non-US nations, and holds out the possibility that they may eventually invest in the domestic Bahamian economy.

And the numerous second home residents and homeowners already based in the Bahamas provide a ‘captive audience’ for private wealth management firms to oversee their assets from here.

“I think that is the trend that we believe will add continued value to the financial services sector,” Ms McCartney told Tribune Business.

“The family offices, and getting people to move their wealth here, and manage their wealth from here. We’re seeing more of that, which is good.

“All these themes came out at the conclave. It’s now to determine how we realise those opportunities.”