June 21, 2006 The increasing popularity of hedge funds has forced them to improve their risk management procedures, according to a new study by financial services consultancy Mercer Oliver Wyman. (Source: wealthbriefing.com)


October 31, 2006 Royal Bank of Canada is to launch a new Chinese joint venture fund management company with China Minsheng Banking Corp. (Source:wealthbriefing.com)


The definition of money laundering in China has been extended to include corruption and bribe taking, violating financial regulations and financial fraud, according to reports in the local media. (Source: China daily)


Bancaja -the official savings bank of Valencia - has bagged a strong team from Banco Urquijo for its private banking division, including head Francisco Gomez Trenor and deputy Manuel Balanzat, according to a report in El Boletin. (Source:wealthbriefing.com)


The booming wealth of China’s new breed of entrepreneurs has been underlined by the latest Forbes China Rich List, with one quarter of the people on the 40-strong list under 40 years of age. (Source:wealthbriefing.com)


China’s wealth management market will grow to $2 trillion by 2015 from the current $335 billion, as people shift from bank savings to other investment channels according to a report by consultants Mercer Oliver Wyman. China is expected to become the world's second-biggest wealth management market, behind the US, and account for 10 per cent of the total increase in global personal financial assets by 2015, said the report.(Source: Chinadaily)


The Madeira branch of Portuguese private bank Banco Espirito Santo is being investigated for money laundering and tax fraud by the Spanish authorities, according to an AFP report. The Spanish investigators suspect the bank of setting up "companies aimed at hiding the origin and ownership of large sums of money deposited in Spain in non-resident accounts" according to the report. Spanish branches of Portuguese and French banks, including BNP Paribas, were raided last week as part of the investigation and Spanish police said that €1.8 billion had been frozen in bank accounts as investigations continued. (Source:wealthbriefing.com)


"The bank's discussions with Bermuda Commercial Bank are at a preliminary stage and no agreement has been reached," the island's second largest lender said yesterday. (Source:STEP)


If approved by parliament, the new rules will exempt immediate family members from inheritance tax. The tax break would cover siblings. (Source: Warsaw Voice)


The Trusts (Amendment No. 4) (Jersey) Law 2006 (the "Law") was registered in the Royal Court this morning and will come into force next week on 27 October 2006.FOREIGN LAWS: Article 9 - minimises the impact of any rules of foreign law upon the creation or operation of a Jersey trust.

FOREIGN JUDGMENTS: Article 9(4) - no foreign judgment may be enforced by the Jersey courts if it is inconsistent with Article 9.

TRUST PERIOD: Article 15 – provides that Jersey trusts may continue for an unlimited period and confirms that no rules of perpetuity apply to Jersey trusts.

NUMBER OF TRUSTEES: Article 16 - permits a sole trustee of a Jersey trust unless its terms require a higher minimum number. (Source:STEP)


HMT confirmed that they will continue to work with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and HMRC to modernise the regulatory and tax framework to ensure that it keeps pace with opportunities in markets of traditional UK strength, such as asset management, along with new and innovative areas such as hedge funds and Islamic finance.

It was also discussed as to how the HMT and the City could best maintain the reputation of the City by establishing a new supervisors forum, bringing together all UK supervisory agencies with responsibility for preventing money laundering and terrorist financing in the UK, to share best practice on risk-based supervision, investigations and enforcement. The forum is intended to fill a gap in the domestic supervisory architecture for financial crime, bringing together all agencies with responsibility for ensuring compliance with domestic and international anti-money laundering (AML) /counter-terrorism financing (CTF) standards. (Source:wealthbriefing.com)


The German Finance Minister, Peer Steinbrueck, said this week that the Grand Coalition's proposed new corporate withholding tax regime would be applied only from 2009, and would be at the rate of 25%, not 30% as previously suggested. The tax will apply to capital gains, and to payments of interest and dividends. (Source: Tax News.com)


The U.S. federal government is cracking down on a popular tax-deferral strategy, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department have issued proposed regulations that would change the tax treatment of transactions in which sellers exchange real estate or other property for an annuity.

The move may effectively end a strategy called a "private annuity trust," which has grown popular in recent years as the real-estate market has soared. (Source: People’s Online Daily)


Online worlds, which have grown massively in the last year, are now the target of the taxman. This raises the question of how online world assets will be taxed. (Source: Tax News.com)


The interior ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK - known as the G6 - met in Stratford-upon-Avon and agreed to crack down on tax fraud that could fund terrorism. (Source: STEP)


Canada is calling for governments around the world to share more information on company ownership as part of an international battle against money laundering and terrorist financing.

"The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is one that we must win," federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told a recent Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary session in Vancouver. "We must stay one step ahead of criminals by continuing to develop ways to defeat them, wherever they operate." (Source: Busines Edge)


Bloomberg reports that the US Virgin Islands is trying to encourage investment in high-tech companies after the Treasury extended the Islands' 90% tax break to businesses dealing in intellectual property in September. In 2004, the IRS and Congress clamped down on abuse of the program by US citizens falsely claiming to be resident in the USVI in order to claim the tax break on income received from local businesses, or on income attributed to them because of their ownership of such companies. Under the new rules, incorporated in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (AJCA) a person has to be resident for at least six months of the year in order to claim the tax break. (Source: Tax News.com)


Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson will today swear in Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Robert K. Steel at a ceremony in Treasury's Cash Room.

The Under Secretary for Domestic Finance serves as the principal adviser to the Secretary on matters of domestic finance and leads the Department's activities with respect to the domestic financial system, fiscal policy and operations, governmental assets and liabilities, and related economic and financial matters. (Source: Tax News.com)


Butterfield Bank (Cayman) Limited has reported third quarter net income of $13.7 million, up year on year by $2.3 million, or 20.1%, reflecting continued strong business growth and the contribution from the Bank’s equity interest in Island Heritage Insurance. The Bank recently established a wholly owned subsidiary in Switzerland. (Source: Tax News.com)


Indian financial regulators have been asked to prepare a "negative list" of tax havens as the government attempts to get a better grip on the huge tide of anonymous money entering its capital markets every year.

According to a paper circulated at the Economic Editors' Conference earlier this week, the Finance Ministry has requested that the list be drawn up by the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The move is part of a wider policy designed to increase scrutiny of India's securities markets and reduce their vulnerability to money launderers. (Source: Tax News.com)