A cross-sector of financial and legal professionals participated Monday in the inaugural session of education seminar series hosted by the Ministry of Financial Services and The Bahamas Investments and Securities Business Association.
Minister of Financial Services Ryan Pinder opened the seminar and reminded participants of the importance of remaining on the cutting edge of the industry and ensuring that they are always knowledgeable of new products.
“We do a good job in The Bahamas of creating new products and being very responsive to private sector and financial services but we have to ensure that our professionals in the industry have the knowledge to advise on these new products,” he said.
Mr. Pinder said the seminars are also a part of the government’s commitment to doubling its investment in education.
He noted that since there is no formal continuing education for financial service professionals, it is important that opportunities are made available that allow for continuous learning.
“We thought it wise in the ministry and certainly the government’s commitment to providing an avenue of continuing education and this is the first event where we talk about some new products – the SMART fund and The Bahamas Executive Entity products and some reporting requirements that are new that have come out of the Securities Industry Act so that the financial services industry has the ability to continuously keep these local professionals abreast of what is happening,” Mr. Pinder said.
The two newest products to the financial services industry are the Specific Mandate alternative Regulatory Test Fund (SMART Fund) and the Bahamas Executive Entity.
The SMART Fund model is designed for high net worth, ultra high net worth and institutional investors to use them to set up private placement funds to diversify their portfolios and manage investments.
The Executive Entity is designed to encapsulate powers currently existing in wealth management and estate planning structures within a new form of HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_entity” \o “Legal entity” legal entity.
Brian Jones, president of BISBA, designed the latest model of smart fund and he said reaction from the international community to the new product has been positive.
“It has been well-received,” he said. “Last week we were in Brazil promoting it internationally. I have already received a mandate to set up three of them so the legal work has already begun – so this is a fun piece of legislation that was published three weeks ago and we are already setting up three of them so that should give an indication as to the demand.”
