United Kingdom and Cayman Islands Joint Declaration
The UK and the Cayman Islands have a strong partnership that emphasizes financial regulatory cooperation, tax transparency, and sanctions enforcement, as revealed by recent developments.
In the realm of financial services, the two entities maintain a longstanding bilateral agreement, based on the US FATCA framework, for the automatic exchange of financial information concerning UK taxpayers with accounts in the Cayman Islands. This agreement promotes tax compliance and transparency.
The Cayman Islands continue to update its regulatory environment, such as the Virtual Asset (Service Providers) regulations and General Licences related to sanctions, demonstrating active cooperation with UK policies and international standards for financial regulation and sanctions enforcement.
Trade and investment links remain strong with the UK running a significant trade surplus with the Cayman Islands, dominated by services which align with the Cayman Islands’ role as a financial services hub.
In terms of sanctions enforcement, the Cayman Islands have issued new general licences regarding payments related to Russian and Belarus sanctions regimes, indicating close alignment with UK and international sanctions policies. Legal analyses discuss the implications of sanctions enforcement in the Cayman Islands, particularly in relation to asset freezes and superyacht seizures, reflecting the jurisdiction’s ongoing role in the UK's broader sanctions regime management.
However, when it comes to environmental protection, the search results do not highlight specific current joint UK-Cayman initiatives explicitly focusing on environmental protection. This absence suggests environmental collaboration is either managed at a different level or not a primary publicly disclosed bilateral priority at present.
Minister of State for the Overseas Territories Stephen Doughty and Cayman Islands Premier André Ebanks met in London on a specific date, and during their discussion, they agreed to continue work on enhancing cooperation through reciprocal information sharing. The conversation covered areas such as environment, security, financial services, and sanctions.
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The FCDO Newsdesk can be contacted via email at [email protected] website or by telephone at 020 7008 3100. Responses from the FCDO Newsdesk will be provided as soon as possible. The FCDO Newsdesk is monitored 24 hours a day.
The Cayman Islands launched a register of beneficial ownership information in February 2025, and the Cayman Islands have committed to making further enhancements to their beneficial ownership register. The Cayman Islands have also provided support to other Overseas Territories, most recently in Anguilla.
In conclusion, the UK-Cayman relationship places strong emphasis on financial regulatory cooperation, tax transparency, and sanctions enforcement, reflecting the Cayman Islands’ role as a global financial center closely linked with UK governance frameworks. Environmental protection initiatives are not prominently featured in the latest publicly available information.
In the traversals of general news, reports have highlighted the Cayman Islands' involvement in the enforcement of sanctions, specifically pertaining to payments related to Russian and Belarus sanctions regimes, thereby aligning with UK and international sanctions policies. However, in the realm of environmental-science, the UK-Cayman partnership seems to lack such visible joint initiatives, as revealed by current findings. This absence does not necessarily mean they are devoid of collaboration but may suggest that environmental matters are managed at a less public level or not a primary priority at present.
