ST. LUCIA: A Perfect Profile for International Financial Services
ABOUT ST. LUCIA
Location
St. Lucia, "the Helen of the West Indies" lies roughly between 60∞ and 61∞ West longitude; 13∞ and 14∞ North Latitude. 1,300 miles South East of Florida, in the Caribbean.
Access
There are regular and daily flights to and from the United States, Canada and Europe.
Government
St. Lucia is an independent member of the British Commonwealth, with a political system based on the Westminster Model, but with a written constitution. St. Lucia has a history of being a stable and safe democracy.
Legal System
St. Lucia has a tradition of separation of powers between the judicial system and the political system. The judiciary is independent and the Privy Council is the final court of appeal.
Economy
The three main pillars of the local economy are: tourism, agriculture and industry, with special emphasis now being placed on the provision of services, especially international financial services.
Financial Infrastructure
Many international financial institutions are represented on the island; they along with several indigenous banks offer all the services associated with a modern financial centre.
Communication
A modern, full automatic digital telephone system is in place with Internet access, and other means of communication in this modern age. We offer an on-line IBC registry which uses the latest stare-of-the-art technology, allowing for incorporation and other functions to be carried out on-line from anywhere in the world.
Currency
St. Lucia's currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (EC$) which has an exchange rate of EC$2.7 to the US Dollar.
Time Zone
St. Lucia lies in the Atlantic standard time zone - 12 hours behind Hong Kong.
The People
St. Lucia has a population of approximately 150,000 people; with a large pool of professionals and university graduates including lawyers, accountants, corporate managers and experts in the field of finance. Competent staff is plentiful and available at reasonable rates - much lower than some of our neighbours in the industry.
English is the official language and we boast to have the highest number of Nobel Laureates per capita. Sir Arthur Lewis in Economics and Derek Walcott for Literature.
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ST. LUCIA'S STRATEGY
Diversify the economy
Provide quality jurisdiction
Adhere to acceptable international standards.
We hope to achieve this by:-
Our anti-money laundering legislation which meets the standards set out by FATF;
By a strong regulatory department - the Financial...
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