St. Lucia Becomes Lure For Captives

As a recent competitor for financial services industry business, St. Lucia, she said, has adopted "an innovative approach that is quickly earning it a reputation as a model offshore center."

So far in 2002, two applications are pending regulatory approval, she said. "Most of the clients using St. Lucia as a captive domicile are American individuals and companies, and include some of the largest manufacturing interests in the world," Ms. Gazio said.

St. Lucia's government, she explained, identified financial services as an area that St. Lucia could easily develop. "The government is committed to establishing a center with the highest service and regulatory standards that will have long-term sustainability," she said.

Ms. Gazio explained that St. Lucia's captive domiciles are subject to regulation by the island's director of Financial Services and the Financial Services Supervision unit.

The regulatory body, she said, is responsible for licensing registered agents and "higher-end entities such as banks, insurance companies and mutual funds formed under the offshore suite of legislation."

FSSU is also responsible for ongoing supervision and monitoring of captives to ensure that they are solvent "and not involved in money laundering or related activity," she said.

An attraction for captives, she said, are St. Lucia's flexible laws, which are formulated to provide an effectively regulated environment, as well as to "satisfy the demands of the client." The government allows tax concessions for those employed in the sector, provided certain criteria are satisfied.

Also a draw is St. Lucia's low capitalization policy. Government strategy is "effective monitoring instead of imposing very high capital requirements," she said. "In this way St. Lucia's domicile is accessible to a wider range of investors."

Minimum capital requirements vary, according to the class of license, from $50,000 to $200,000. A deposit of $50,000 is required to be maintained in an approved bank or financial institution, not necessarily in St. Lucia, Ms. Gazio explained.

St. Lucia, she said, also offers comparatively low annual fees. The captive license fee is $2,500; application fee is $500; IBC incorporation fee is $300, she said. These fees and the IBC incorporation fees are prorated in the year of incorporation on a quarterly basis. Renewal fees are due Jan. 1.

Ms. Gazio also touted the location's professional services. There are 130 practicing litigators in St. Lucia, she said, and 100 qualified accountants employed by large commercial organizations and "in the big-five firms, four of which are represented on the island."

The island's human resource base "presents a major advantage," she said. Resources include "a well-developed educational infrastructure, fashioned on the United Kingdom model."

St. Lucia's income tax initiative, according to Ms Gazio, seeks to provide incentive for service providers licensed as registered agents, trustees and other professionals.

Ms. Gazio said, "The legislative intent seems to be to encourage local trust companies to invest in the marketing and development of the industry."

A list of local service providers is available on the Web site in the professional directory at www.pinnaclestlucia.com.