A new law has been introduced in Qatar making it illegal for companies to conduct any financial business in the country without holding a licence from one of the three regulatory bodies, as the authorities clamp down on unauthorised financial activity.
The Chartered Insurance Institute has introduced three new “international-only” qualifications for financial advisers, as it seeks to provide a bigger service for globally mobile IFAs.
HM Revenue & Customs has made 640 requests for information on individual’s tax affairs to overseas governments in the 2011 2012 tax year so far, according to research from international law firm Pinsent Masons.
Resolution Ltd’s Friends Life subsidiary has sold its 30% stake in the Malaysian Shariah-compliant insurance business it acquired in 2008 back to its joint venture partner, AmBank Group.
Momentum Pensions, the pensions provider which has operations in both the Isle of Man and Malta, has launched into the open market an IoM QROPS that it says will compliment and replicate its existing Malta-based qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme.
Financial advisers are reporting having issues renewing or purchasing professional indemnity insurance, as the number of insurers offering cover dwindles and those that do make it more difficult and expensive to obtain.
This year sees the arrival of RDR-compliance and a tax residency test, plus the continuing tax avoidance furore, all with important consequences for advisers, says Standard Life International's Julie Hutchison.
Wealth manager Coutts has launched a range of seven multi-asset funds, with management split between UK chief investment officer (CIO), Alan Higgins, and team, and Europe CIO, Norman Villamin, and his team.
The oldest Swiss bank is to close, having been fined $74m by the US authorities, after pleading guilty to charges of assisting US citizens avoid paying tax.
Thirty two of the UK’s top tax cheats received a total of more than 150 years in jail last year, as HM Revenue & Customs continued its crackdown on tax evasion.
New business sales of UK-distributed offshore bonds continued to fall in the third quarter of 2012, as investors stayed away, and advisers concentrated on readying themselves for RDR.
An insurance company and one of its directors in Hong Kong have been acquitted of aiding and abetting unlicensed sales of an investment fund.
