VI remains on France's Blacklist
He was responding to questions on the French blacklist issue at a press conference today April 23, 2015 which dealt with a number of issues, chief among them changes in the Government’s administration of the financial services sector.
“To answer the question which I guess everybody wants to hear, what I can say is that on a technical level the French are really pleased with us. But I cannot advise you on the other level that we need to get to in order to get off the list which is the political level,” said Smith.
He said that out of 119 requests that the VI has received, “We have answered about 116 and we are in the process of answering others.”
VI unfairly cited – Governor Duncan
Governor of the Virgin Islands John S. Duncan OBE had in November 2014 told this news site that as far as he is aware, the French government was at that time allegedly satisfied that the complaints they had about speedy response from the Territory regarding financial services have been addressed.
Further, he said he believes that the blacklist by France of the Territory's financial services was unfair.
"I hope the French will lift the blacklist by the end of this year," he said during the interview. "I think BVI in my personal view has been unfairly cited. I think we are a well regulated Territory," he had said.
He said that the French blacklist, when it came about, indicated there was a problem in the way the territory was implementing some of the international regulations in terms of the VI’s response. "The French blacklist is as much about the French internal politics as it is whether BVI was properly carrying out its functions," he said.
Opposition not responsible
Honourable Julian Fraser RA (R3) had rejected the assertion by the National Democratic Party (NDP) that the Virgin Islands Party Government was responsible for the blacklist on the territory, citing that the French sanctioned the VI in 2013, two years after the VIP left office.
Hon Fraser stated: “Also keeping in mind that the VIP was the only party to sign tax information exchange agreements, over two administrations from 1999 to 2003 and 2007 to 2011, while the NDP signed none in their first administration from 2003 to 2007 and signed none in their second administration from 2011 to the time the French blacklisted us in 2013. The French detected this careless and irresponsible approach that the NDP Government had towards our financial services and they took action. They made 43 requests for information from our Government and I think they got something like 21. What do you expect? And they could look to blame us?”
However, the NDP countered, claiming that the issues raised by France came up during the 2007 to 2011 administration of the VIP.
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13 Responses to “VI remains on France's Blacklist”
like France, then they can make changes. The French government does these things time to time, maybe
some of the wine went bad. They're just rude to pasteurize the time.
The actions of the French can be exasperating.
Shucks!
I too am on their black list and I am not even Black.
Go figure.