* Isle of Man Promotes New Trust Services Legislation
Following consultation with the trust services industry, the Isle of Man Treasury is promoting legislation which will enable the Financial Supervision Commission to regulate persons providing services in relation to trusts, to be known as the Fiduciary Services Bill 2004.
The Bill amends the Corporate Service Providers Act 2000 so that corporate service providers (CSPs) and trust service providers (TSPs) will collectively be known as ‘fiduciaries’ and any person providing CSP and/or TSP services will be required to hold the relevant class of fiduciary licence.
The licensing of fiduciaries will bring the Isle of Man into line with similar arrangements already established in other offshore jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Guernsey and Jersey and an external review of the proposals by London law firm Stikeman Elliot has found the bill compares favourably with legislation in these places.
The Manx Government confirmed to the International Monetary Fund, during its review of the Island’s financial sector regulation and supervision, that proposals for TSP licensing would be progressed by extending to TSPs the licensing, regulatory and supervisory regime currently applied to CSPs under the Corporate Service Providers Act 2000, bringing the island into line with internationally accepted practices.
