CAYMAN ISLANDS – The definition of a beneficial owner in the Companies Law (Revised) and the Limited Liability Companies Law (Revised) will change on 15 May 2020 from “more than 25%” of the shares or voting rights in a company to “twenty-five per cent (25%) or more” of the shares or voting rights in a company.
In line with other offshore jurisdictions and in order to comply with commitments to the EU, the Cayman Islands Government has introduced new registration requirements on both private funds and exempted funds via the Private Funds Law 2020 and the Mutual Funds (Amendment) Law (2020 Revision) which were both enacted on 7 February 2020. This update provides a summary of the key changes and features of the new legislation.
On 30 September 2019, the Cayman Islands Data Protection Law (DPL) comes into force, introducing globally recognised standards regarding the protection, processing, and access to, an individual’s personal data.
The DPL applies to ‘data controllers’ established in the Cayman Islands, regardless of whether they have a physical presence in Cayman. Where a data controller engages a third party ‘data processor’ to process personal data on its behalf, the data controller must ensure that the third-party service provider also complies with the DPL.
Cayman Islands – Legislative changes in the Cayman Islands for Companies, LLCs and LLPs. Following the March 2019 assessment by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force of the Cayman Islands’ anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism regime, recent legislative amendments have come into force in the Cayman Islands.
The amendments introduce new requirements on how certain information is required to be maintained, filed and disclosed relating to the different entities. For the purpose of this update, we focus on the amendments as they relate specifically to Cayman Islands companies.
Following the recently enacted Anti-Money Laundering (Amendment) Regulations, 2019, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) now has enhanced regulatory powers to obtain information from the person or entity carrying out relevant financial business, a person connected to the relevant financial business, or a person reasonably believed to have relevant information. Entities registered with CIMA as Excluded Persons under the Securities Investment Business Law (Revised), such as investment managers and investment advisers incorporated in the Cayman Islands, are affected by these regulatory changes in particular and should note the new requirements.