Caribbean News
Cayman plunges in Financial Services ranking, flaws identified in security index says report
By Shanieka Smith
Features Writer
#Cayman, May 19, 2022 – The Cayman Islands, which held the top spot in the Tax Justice Network’s global financial secrecy ranking, has now fallen to the 14th position. This comes following a data disclosure which has it that the financial services provided by the country to non residents was below expectations.
Cayman holding the top spot was due to significant flaws detected in the Financial Security Index choice of data and scoring when calculating a Global Scale Weight (GSW) for the country. Cayman Finance conducted an analysis last year that showed that portfolio liabilities were used instead of publicly-available data for financial services exports, and this made the Cayman’s GSW almost nine times higher than it should have been. 
The Financial Security Index (FSI) assesses the secrecy of financial centers and its impact on global financial flows. It then grades each country’s financial and legal system on a scale out of 100: 0 is full transparency and 100 is full secrecy.
Rules on transparency on ownership of companies, trust and foundations, public access to annual accounts, and compliance with anti-money laundering standards are included in the 20 Key Financial Secrecy Indicators (KFSI) used to measure the FSI.
Cayman has the 10th highest FSI score in the Caribbean, the 30th in the world. At the same time, it had the second highest Global Score Weight (GSW) in the region (after the British Virgin Islands) and 14th in the world. The US has the highest Global Scale Weight because of its refusal to exchange information with the tax authorities of other countries.
Jude Scott, Chief Executive Officer of Cayman Finance, response to last year’s report was:
“We are confident in the leadership of the Cayman Islands Government and our financial services industry have shown in adopting global standards for transparency and tax information sharing. While fraud is a global issue that we all have a continued role in tackling, both the EU and the OECD have recently reviewed the Cayman Islands tax neutral regime and found it to be transparent, consistent with good tax governance principles and without the existence of harmful tax regimes. Those are the kinds of internationally recognized assessments that should be considered when assessing the Cayman Islands.”
By Deandrea Hamilton | Magnetic Media
October 14, 2025 – It’s being called political theatre — but for citizens, constitutional watchdogs, and democracy advocates across the Caribbean, it feels far more serious. Within a single week, two national parliaments — in Trinidad and Tobago and St. Kitts and Nevis — descended into turmoil as opposition members stormed out in protest, accusing their Speakers of bias, overreach, and abuse of parliamentary procedure.
For observers, the walkouts signal a deeper problem: erosion of trust in the very institutions meant to safeguard democracy. When Speakers are viewed as political enforcers instead of neutral referees, parliaments stop functioning as chambers of debate and start performing as stages for power and spectacle — with citizens left wondering who, if anyone, is still accountable.
October 6: St. Kitts Parliament Erupts
The first walkout erupted in Basseterre on October 6, 2025, when Dr. Timothy Harris, former Prime Minister and now Opposition Leader,
led his team out of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly in a protest that stunned the chamber.
The flashpoint came as the Speaker moved to approve more than three years’ worth of unratified parliamentary minutes in one sitting — covering 27 meetings and three national budgets — without individual review or debate.
Dr. Harris called the move “a flagrant breach of the Constitution and parliamentary tradition,” warning that the practice undermines transparency and accountability. “No serious parliament can go years without approving a single set of minutes,” he said after exiting the chamber.
The Speaker defended the decision as administrative housekeeping, but critics were unconvinced, branding the move a “world record disgrace.” The opposition’s walkout triggered renewed calls for the Speaker’s resignation and sparked a wider public discussion about record-keeping, accountability, and respect for parliamentary norms in St. Kitts and Nevis.
October 10: Trinidad Opposition Follows Suit
Four days later, on October 10, 2025, the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago staged its own walkout from the House of Representatives in Port of Spain.
The UNC accused the Speaker of partisan bias, claiming she had repeatedly blocked urgent questions, ignored points of order, and allowed government members to breach standing orders without consequence.
“The Speaker has failed in her duty to act impartially,” the Opposition declared in a statement. “Parliament is not the property of any political party or Presiding Officer.”
The dramatic exit was seen as a culmination of months of rising tension and frustration, with opposition MPs arguing that parliamentary rules were being selectively applied to silence dissenting voices.
Political analyst Dr. Marcia Ferdinand described the twin walkouts as “a warning sign that parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean is teetering on the edge of performative politics.”
“When chairs become political shields rather than constitutional referees,” she said, “democracy becomes theatre, not governance.”
A Pattern Emerging
While St. Kitts and Trinidad are very different political environments, both incidents point to the same regional fault line: the perception that Speakers — the guardians of parliamentary order — are no longer impartial.
In Westminster-style systems like those across the Caribbean, the Speaker’s authority depends not on power but on public confidence in fairness. Once that credibility erodes, parliamentary control collapses into confrontation.
Governance experts say the implications are serious: eroded trust between government and opposition, declining public confidence in state institutions, and growing voter cynicism that “rules” are flexible tools of political advantage.
Why It Matters
Parliamentary walkouts are not new in the Caribbean, but what makes these recent events different is their frequency and intensity — and
the regional echo they’ve created. Social media has amplified images of lawmakers storming out, with citizens from Barbados to Belize questioning whether the same erosion of decorum could be happening in their own legislatures.
Analysts warn that if this perception takes hold, it risks diminishing the moral authority of parliamentary democracy itself.
“Once opposition MPs believe the rules are rigged, and once citizens believe Parliament is just performance,” said one Caribbean governance researcher, “you’ve lost the most valuable currency in democracy — trust.”
Restoring Balance
Political reformers across the region are calling for tighter Standing Order enforcement, independent parliamentary service commissions, and training to strengthen Speaker neutrality. Civil society leaders say the public must also play its part by demanding transparency and refusing to normalize partisan manipulation of parliamentary procedure.
Whether these twin walkouts become catalysts for reform — or simply another episode of Caribbean political theatre — will depend on what happens next inside those chambers.
For now, democracy watchers agree on one thing: when opposition leaders feel the only way to be heard is to walk out, the entire democratic house — not just its Speaker — is in danger of collapse.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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