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The Cayman Islands is a self-governing British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The 264-square-kilometre (102-square-mile) territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the south of Cuba and northeast of Honduras, between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. The capital city is George Town on Grand Cayman, which is the most populous of the three islands.
The economy of the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, is mainly fueled by the tourism sector and by the financial services sector, together representing 50–60 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The Cayman Islands Investment Bureau, a government agency, has been established with the mandate of promoting investment and economic development in the territory. Because of the territory’s economic success and it being a popular banking destination for wealthy individuals and businesses, it is often dubbed the ‘financial capital’ of the Caribbean.
The Cayman Islands is a parliamentary representative democratic dependency. As a British Overseas Territories, Charles III is the head of state. The Premier of the Cayman Islands is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government, legislative power is vested in both the government and the Parliament of the Cayman Islands. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The term "offshore company" or “offshore corporation” is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to:
.ky is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Cayman Islands. The code was chosen as other possible options had already been allocated. Registration was limited to residents and registered companies in the Cayman Islands with a local address, but this restriction was removed in September 2015. The Cayman Islands also has the international three-letter code CYM and has won a bid to be awarded the .cym domain in a future expansion of the top-level domain space.
The Cayman Islands Dollar is the currency of the Cayman Islands. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively CI$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is subdivided into 100 cents.
An asset-protection trust is any form of trust which provides for funds to be held on a discretionary basis. Such trusts are set up in an attempt to avoid or mitigate the effects of taxation, divorce and bankruptcy on the beneficiary. Such trusts are therefore frequently proscribed or limited in their effects by governments and the courts.
An offshore fund is generally a collective investment scheme domiciled in an offshore jurisdiction. Like the term "offshore company", the term is more descriptive than definitive, and both the words 'offshore' and 'fund' may be construed differently.
The International College of the Cayman Islands (ICCI) is an non-profit, private, four-year independent institution of higher education which opened in the fall of 1970. It is the oldest college in the Cayman Islands and is located in Newlands in the district of Bodden Town on the island of Grand Cayman.
The law of the Cayman Islands is a combination of common law and statute, and is based heavily upon English law.
Private equity funds and hedge funds are private investment vehicles used to pool investment capital, usually for a small group of large institutional or wealthy individual investors. They are subject to favorable regulatory treatment in most jurisdictions from which they are managed, which allows them to engage in financial activities that are off-limits for more regulated companies. Both types of fund also take advantage of generally applicable rules in their jurisdictions to minimize the tax burden on their investors, as well as on the fund managers. As media coverage increases regarding the growing influence of hedge funds and private equity, these tax rules are increasingly under scrutiny by legislative bodies. Private equity and hedge funds choose their structure depending on the individual circumstances of the investors the fund is designed to attract.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the Cayman Islands may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in the Cayman Islands. Despite anti-gay attitudes expressed by certain members of the government, social acceptance by the Caymanian public has been known to be some of the best in the Caribbean.
Anthony Travers, OBE was the Chairman of the Board of Cayman Finance from 2009 to 2011. Travers is also the Chairman of the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange and former Senior Partner and Managing Partner of international law firm Maples and Calder. He has over thirty years experience in all aspects of Cayman Islands law, particularly mutual funds, structured finance, insurance and private client, and has throughout advised Government on the development of Cayman Islands legislation.
Cayman Enterprise City is a development project which consists of three special economic zones focused on attracting knowledge-based and specialized-services businesses to set up a physical presence in the Cayman Islands. It is a government initiative that has been outsourced to Cayman Enterprise City, a privately owned development company. To facilitate the development of special economic zones in the Cayman Islands, special economic zones laws were enacted in September 2011 and February 2012. The government established the Special Economic Zone Authority ("SEZA") as the licensing and regulatory body.
Cayman Islands company law is primarily codified in the Companies Law and the Limited Liability Companies Law, 2016, and to a lesser extent in the Securities and Investment Business Law. The Cayman Islands is a leading offshore financial centre, and financial services form a significant part of the economy of the Cayman Islands. Accordingly company law forms a much more prominent part of the law of the Cayman Islands than might otherwise be expected.
Fund governance refers to a system of checks and balances and work performed by the governing body (board) of an investment fund to ensure that the fund is operated not only in accordance with law, but also in the best interests of the fund and its investors. The objective of fund governance is to uphold the regulatory principles commonly known as the four pillars of investor protection that are typically promulgated through the investment fund regulation applicable in the jurisdiction of the fund. These principles vary by jurisdiction and in the US, the 1940 Act generally ensure that: (i) The investment fund will be managed in accordance with the fund's investment objectives, (ii) The assets of the investment fund will be kept safe, (iii) When investors redeem they will get their pro rata share of the investment fund's assets, (iv) The investment fund will be managed for the benefit of the fund's shareholders and not its service providers.
The Cayman Islands Classic, operated by Caymax Sports Ltd., is a preseason college basketball tournament that takes place in late November of each year, at John Gray Gymnasium in the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Basketball Classic is expected to mirror other popular NCAA preseason basketball tournaments like Hawaii’s Maui Invitational Tournament or the Bahamas’ Battle 4 Atlantis. The First Tournament started 20 November 2017 and concluded on 22 November 2017. The Mountain West sponsors the tournament, as a result a Mountain West team will be in the preseason tournament every year.
Among the fourteen British Overseas Territories, eight – Akrotiri and Dhekelia, the British Antarctic Territory, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, the Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands – recognise and perform same-sex marriages. In the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, only British military and civilian personnel can enter into same-sex marriages and civil partnerships.
Cannabis in the Cayman Islands is illegal, but is transported illicitly; limited usage of CBD oil is allowed for medical purposes since 2016.
Same-sex marriage is currently not recognised in the Cayman Islands. The island's statutory law limits marriage to different-sex couples. A lawsuit with the Grand Court successfully challenged this ban in March 2019; however, the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling in November 2019. Same-sex civil partnerships are legal following the enactment of the Civil Partnership Law, 2020 on 4 September 2020.
References
- The Exempted Limited Partnership Bill. Cayman Islands Gazette.
- Cayman Islands: The Exempted Limited Partnership Law 2014. The Lawyer.
- Changes To The Cayman Islands Exempted Limited Partnership Law. Mondaq.