Pete Donnelly

The waiver agreement is not new, however Pete Donnelly, general manager of the Royal Bank of Scotland (Nassau) Limited in the Bahamas says his bank has been using the agreement for over a decade.So have most of the larger, established financial institutions, which generally have no desire to impede legitimate foreign government investigations into criminal money laundering activities.

The current difference is in scope.The waiver is now mandatory, no matter what the client's home country, at virtually every major bank or trust company which has a US presence.You can find them at Citibank, Barclays, CIBC and others.They are also mandatory for US citizens.
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If the client doesn't sign, there is no relationship," says Donnelly.The waiver of the Royal Bank of Scotland applies only to US citizens, but Donnelly says there isn't usually any objection.In fact he says he knows of only one applicant in the last six months who refused to sign.We don't usually deal with walk-in business and we don't deal with cash."says Donnelly.

Jones says the prevalence of bank secrecy waivers may also be indicative of the changes taking place in the offshore industry."I think true confidentiality is a thing of the past," he says."Tax harmonization is inevitable and eventually Bahamas will go the same way",

There are also certain trends in flow of offshore capital that can be observed as international financial centers evolve.Big banks will lose some of their business to small banks, which will in turn lose some or their business to banks in less regulated jurisdictions."The hot money is slowly being driven out to the periphery of the offshore world, but that's business you probably don't want anyway."says Jones.

Pete Donnelly, general manager of the Royal Bank of Scotland (Nassau) Limited in the Bahamas, says his bank has been using the agreement for over a decade.So have most of the larger, established financial institutions, which generally have no desire to impede legitimate foreign government investigations into criminal money laundering activities.

The current difference is in scope.The waiver is now mandatory, no matter what the client's home country, at virtually every major bank or trust company which has a US presence.You can find them at Citibank, Barclays, CIBC and others.It is also mandatory for US citizens.
...
If the client do not sign, there is no relationship, says Donnelly.The waiver of the Royal Bank of Scotland applies only to US citizens, but Donnelly says there be not usually any objection.In fact, he says he knows of only one applicant in the last six months who refused to sign.We do not usually deal with walk-in business, and we do not deal with cash, says Donnelly.

Jones says the prevalence of bank secrecy waivers may also be indicative of the changes taking place in the offshore industry.I think true confidentiality is a thing of the past, he says.Tax harmonization is inevitable and eventually Bahamas will go the same way..

There are also certain trends in the flow of offshore capital that can be observed as international financial centers evolve.Big banks will lose some of their business to small banks, which will in turn lose some of their business to banks in less regulated jurisdictions.The hot money is slowly being driven out to the periphery of the offshore world, but that be business you probably do not want anyway, says Jones.