Building professional relationships with practitioners to boost the BVI as an international financial centre (IFC) with innovative trust was a focus of BVI Finance’s diamond sponsorship at the STEP LatAm Conference on September 22 and 23.
The sold-out conference in Panama had over 350 attendees from across 30 countries including from Latin America, Europe, the USA, and Canada. Panama’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senhora Marta Elida Gordon-Owen, a former BVI practitioner, also came to support the BVI delegation.
BVI Finance CEO Elise Donovan and Head of Business Development & Marketing Simon Gray attended along with several representatives from BVI Finance member firms.
At the opening reception, Elise Donovan spoke on the importance of the BVI prioritising the relationship with STEP. She said "STEP is an essential organisation in the growth and maturity of trust practitioners and international finance centres, like the BVI." She also talked about the special relationship with Panama going back more than 25 years.
“As one of the largest offshore international finance centres for company incorporations, we continue to grow from strength to strength as the BVI saw the highest number of first-quarter new incorporations in four years. Moreover, our firms have acted on tens of billions of high-value, sophisticated transactions, from initial public offerings to complex debt restructuring and launching new funds,” said Elise.
Christopher McKenzie of O’Neal Webster, who presented on Innovation in Trust Constructs, spoke about the BVI’s advanced trust structures, emphasising that the BVI had become a world leader in private trust companies (PTCs) which enable settlers to have greater control of the trust structure.
BVI private client expert Nichola Dunkley gave examples of practical steps a trustee should consider taking to comply with UN Sanctions given the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both presentations received positive feedback from delegates.
Other topics addressed included, the Effective Implementation of Beneficial Ownership Registers, the US Corporate Transparency Act, and its impact as a jurisdiction of choice for Latin American families with much focus on Crypto Assets and Wealth Structuring.
STEP, Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, is a unique professional body providing members with a local, national, and international learning and business network focusing on the responsible stewardship of assets today and across the generations. STEP provides education, training, representation and networking for its more than 21,000 members across 95 jurisdictions.
