In Safe Hands

IN SAFE HANDS

Published in the CEO Insight - Winter 2021/2022

John Evans

In the heart of the South Pacific is the nation of the Cook Islands. Situated south of Hawaii and in the same time zone, the Cook Islands is an independent nation in free association with New Zealand.

The Cook Islands established itself as an international finance center in the early 1980s with the enactment of the International Companies Act 1981-82 and the International Trusts Act 1984. Since that time, through amendments to those acts and subsequent legislation, the Cook Islands has developed a robust asset protection framework, which focuses on protecting wealth.

The Cook Islands is a strongly regulated financial center with the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) licensing and regulating domestic and international banks, insurers, captive insurers, trustee companies, and money changing and remittance businesses. The FSC is supported by the Financial Investigations Unit, which manages the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism obligations. The strength of the regulation was proven in 2018 with the release of the Cook Islands Mutual Evaluation Report (MER), published by the Asia Pacific Group (APG – regional body of FATF), which rated the Cook Islands in the top 20 percent (higher even than New Zealand and Australia) of 165 nations for implementing international regulatory standards, (a copy of the MER is available here).

“CSB clients can be comfortable in the knowledge that their assets are being managed and protected in line with internationally recognized banking standards.”

The Cook Islands is a transparent jurisdiction from a tax reporting point of view being compliant with both the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and the Common Reporting Standards approved by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This has been acknowledged by United States IRS who in 2019 approved the Cook Islands Know Your Customer rules. It was also acknowledged by the European Union, which in 2020 white-listed the Cook Islands tax governance.

Banking in the Cook Islands
There are four banks currently licensed to provide banking in the Cook Islands, and there are two types of banking licenses. ‘Domestic’ is for local residents and ‘International’ is for people or entities not resident in the Cook Islands. Banks are required to meet the requirements of the Banking Act 2011, together with the obligations under the FSC’s Prudential Standards. Capital Security Bank (CSB), meanwhile, is the only bank that utilizes its International License to provide investment banking services to non-resident clients.

Banking in the Cook Islands with CSB provides its clients with several safeguards to protect their assets, since it has vigorous internal policies and procedures, which are aligned to the Cook Islands legislative and regulatory frameworks. CSB clients can be comfortable in the knowledge that their assets are being managed and protected in line with internationally recognized banking standards.

Banking with Capital Security Bank
With over 20 years in business, CSB is a full-service investment bank and provides banking services to individuals and entities from around the world, with the ability to open accounts remotely, such that there is no need to travel to the Cook Islands in person. Offering self-directed Online Securities Trading and custody services, CSB gives its clients access to a broad range of global exchanges and investment opportunities, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds and options. CSB also provides Managed Investment Accounts, Term Deposits, Foreign Exchange, and Bullion Storage.

Establishing an investment account with CSB is a simple process and this is what our clients tell us too. The three-step process is as follows:

1. Register using our online form, following the instructions and providing the required due diligence;
2. Once approved add funds quickly and securely to your new account via a bank transfer;
3. Start trading online with access to more than 40 global exchanges across most asset classes.

For more information on CSB, contact one of our professional Banking Team on [email protected]