Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Fishing with a spin-ning reel & well-baited line

Under the heading:   Regulation and Supervision of Financial Services Companies in the Isle of Man  the website www.shelteroffshore.com offers prospective depositors this bait:

"The Isle of Man is almost universally respected in the financial services industry – this is largely because of the level of regulation and supervision in place that all financial services companies have to adhere to when they establish an operational presence on the island.

Any business wishing to commence ‘regulated activities’ – i.e., financial services related business - in or from the Isle of Man has to be licensed by the island’s Financial Supervision Commission, and the Commission will not issue a license unless it is 100% satisfied that the license applicant is “a fit and proper person to undertake the regulated activity.”

The ‘fit and proper test’ is both an initial test at the time of granting a licence, and a continuing test in relation to the conduct of regulated activities. The test takes into account integrity, solvency and competence and is very strict and far-reaching. It is as a result of this that only serious companies ever establish themselves on the island, and therefore, as a result, the most reputable financial advisories trust in these companies to do the best for their clients’ funds."

................................................................................

I have highlighted in bold text the sentence: The test takes into account integrity, solvency and competence and is very strict and far-reaching. It is as a result of this that only serious companies ever establish themselves on the island

Every depositor who has had their life ruined by the Kaupthing bank debacle will seriously question whether the directors, backed by the the FSC, acted with "integrity, solvency and competence" when they placed totally unsecured over 50% of the banks assets into Kaupthing UK, knowing that it would be at risk of being substantially lost in administration if the parent bank in Iceland failed.

At least the website does say: "The Isle of Man is almost universally respected..." It would have been better spin if the site had spent some time qualifying exactly what it meant by 'almost'. But that would have defeated the purpose of the fishing expedition as the bait would not have looked so attractive.

No comments:

Post a Comment