Guernsey Finance

Mourant Ozannes has opened an office in Hong Kong to provide clients and intermediaries with access to the firm's offshore legal services in an Asian time zone.

The office opening has been timed to coincide with celebrations for Chinese New Year, giving Mourant Ozannes' Asian office an auspicious start date in 2012 - the Year of the Dragon.

BDO Limited, an audit and accountancy firm based in St Peter Port in Guernsey, has joined forces with BDO LLP, the sixth largest accountancy and business advisory firm in the UK.

Guernsey has signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with India.

The Island has also put pen to paper with the Seychelles and is expected to sign with St Kitts and Nevis in the coming days. This will take the total number of TIEAs signed by Guernsey from 31 to 34* by the end of the year.

The agreement with India was signed yesterday (20 December) by Guernsey’s Chief Minister, Lyndon Trott and the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, His Excellency Rajesh N. Prasad, at the Indian High Commission in London. It is Guernsey’s 13th bilateral TIEA with a G20 member.

A delegation of officials and practitioners from Guernsey has been raising the profile of the Island’s finance sector in Mumbai, India.

Guernsey has signed Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with Japan and Poland.

The bilateral agreements were signed yesterday (Tuesday 6 December) and it means that Guernsey has now signed a total of 31 TIEAs*.

Guernsey’s financial services regulator, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC), has signed a statement of cooperation with the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

The statement of cooperation provides the framework for enhanced cooperation between the two supervisory bodies.

Guernsey’s Chief Minister, Lyndon Trott, has made a statement to the local parliament, the States of Guernsey, reinforcing the fact that the Island will retain a zero-tax product in the future.

A delegation from Guernsey has visited Shenzhen as the first step along the road to having Guernsey companies listed on the local stock exchange.