09.25.08
Posted in Offshore Banking, Offshore Services, SIBA, Seychelles CSL, Seychelles IBC, Seychelles offshore jurisdiction at 11:52 am by Robert Klien
It has already been discussed that the Seychelles International Business Authority (SIBA) sponsors many important events. Today, on September 25, 2008, SIBA sponsors another important event – Seychelles Road Show Event. It is a half-day conference held in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China.
It should be noted that distinguished panel of speakers are presenting numerous topics at this conference. The issues under discussion are aimed to further strengthen the existing ties between the Seychelles and China. This event is a unique forum that explore the products of the Seychelles financial services industry. The issues to be adressed are the International Business Companies (IBCs), Mutual and Hedge Funds, the benefits of the Seychelles CSL used in conjunction with the Seychelles/China Double Taxation Agreement, and tax-efficient structures. Also, the speakers will discuss the uses of Seychelles as the jurisdiction for offshore banking purposes.
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04.18.08
Posted in Double Taxation Agreements, Financial Services, Offshore Services, Seychelles IBC, Seychelles banking, Seychelles companies, Seychelles offshore jurisdiction at 3:01 pm by Robert Klien
Publishing Seychelles Strategy for 2017 has been announced previously.
It has also been already told that the mission stated in the above-mentioned document was doubling the Seychelles GDP by 2017, which is to be achieved by focusing on developing the offshore financial services industry, fisheries and tourism expansion programmes, and the growth of other economic sectors.
However, it is worth covering another important aspect of Seychelles Strategy 2017. The strategy emphasizes the importance of the active promotion of the menu of offshore services on offer including IBC registration, special licence companies, mutual funds, and insurance captives. On of the strategic objectives regarding this is promoting corporate culture and developing the financial sector by means of setting up a stock exchange that will serve as an important mechanism to enhance Seychellois stakeholding in fisheries and tourism.
Innovation in business practice is to be encouraged and customer service delivery standards are to be raised to strengthen the industry.
As Seychelles is going to develop as a financial jurisdiction, its potential of developing a reputable offshore banking sector will be exploited.
According to Seychelles Strategy 2017, the impetus to offshore banking development could be the country’s double taxation avoidance (DTA) agreements signed with 10 countries. Through Seychelles-incorporated offshore companies, international investors will be encouraged to invest in Seychelles’ DTA partners, and the jurisdiction is to benefit from banking services on these transactions. Of course, where appropriate, local legislation should be updated.
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04.04.08
Posted in Business and Economy, International relations, Seychelles IBC, Seychelles companies at 10:28 pm by Robert Klien
Recently China urged the business community of Seychelles to its largest fair.
The Seychellois companies are invited to visit and take part in the 103rd China Import and Export Fair, which is known as the Canton Fair.
The Fair will be held in several phases. The 1st one will take place on April 15-20, 2008, while the 2nd will be held on April 25-30, 2008 in Guangzhou. The 1st session will focus on medicines and health products, industrial products, textiles and garments, while the 2nd will focus on consumer goods and gifts. The Canton Fair will be staged at the centre of the Pearl River Delta and it will manufacture powerhouse and exporting bases.
The Canton Fair is the largest trade fair in China held twice a year – in April and October. It provides with a rich variety of Chinese goods. The international sections of this 103rd Fair will be placed in the Pazhou and Liuhua complexes of China Import and Export.
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01.16.08
Posted in SIBA, Seychelles IBC, Seychelles legislation, Seychelles offshore jurisdiction at 11:18 am by Robert Klien
On December 17, 2007, the Seychelles International Business Authority (SIBA) published a document entitled International Business Companies (Amendment of Schedule) Regulations, 2007. The above-mentioned document was signed by the Minister of Finance.
What the document does is simplifying the fees related to Seychelles offshore company registration (Schedule 1 of INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COMPANIES ACT, 1994).
The amendments are as follows:
previously:
(a) $100 upon the registration by the Registrar of a company incorporated under this Act the authorised capital of which is $5,000 or less;
now:
(a) $100 upon the registration by the Registrar of a company incorporated under this Act;
previously:
(e) $500 upon the registration by the Registrar of articles of merger or consolidation, but $700 in the case of articles of merger or consolidation that also constitute the Memorandum of a company the authorised capital of which, exceeds $50,000 or that amend the Memorandum of a surviving company to increase the authorised capital from $50,000 or less to more than $50,000;
now:
(e) $500 upon the registration by the Registrar of articles of merger or consolidation;
previously:
(f) $500 upon the registration by the Registrar of articles of arrangement, but $700 in the case of articles of arrangement that also constitute the Memorandum of a company the authorised capital of which exceeds $50,000 or that amend the Memorandum of a company to increase the authorised capital from $50,000 or less to more than $50,000;
now:
(f) $500 upon the registration by the Registrar of articles of arrangement;
previously:
(g) (i) $100 upon the submission to the Registrar of articles of continuation for a company the authorised capital of which does not exceed $5,000;
now:
(g) $100 upon the submission to the Registrar of articles of continuation.
As regards annual fees, there is the following amendment:
Instead of fees divided according to the authorised capital:
(2) A company the name of which is on the Register on 31st December in any year shall, before the date of the relevant anniversary of its incorporation under the Act pay to the Registrar an annual licence fee as follows -
(a) $100 if its authorised capital does not exceed $5,000;
(b) $300 if its authorised capital does not exceed $50,000 and its shares have a par value;
(c) $1,000 if its authorised capital exceeds $50,000; and
(d) $350 if its authorised capital does not exceed $50,000 and some or all of its shares have no par value
now the fee $100 is to be paid:
(2) A company the name of which is on the Register on 31st December in any year shall, before the date of the relevant anniversary of its incorporation under the Act pay to the Registrar an annual licence fee of $100.â€
he above-mentioned document named “International Business Companies (Amendment of Schedule) Regulations, 2007†was signed by the Minister of Finance Danny Faure on October 12, 2007.
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01.03.08
Posted in Seychelles IBC, Seychelles offshore jurisdiction at 8:19 pm by Robert Klien
This week a security researcher has warned the public that new “ransomware” locks up one’s PC and then demands USD 35 from the user to unlock it.
Alex Eckelberry, CEO of US security developer Sunbelt Software Distribution, said that the extortionists ask victims of the Delf.ctk Trojan horse to dial a 900 number, and added that the number they tell can be traced to a payment processor also used by hardcore pornography websites in order to charge for access to their content, and this processor is named “passwordtwoenter.com”.
According to a search on Google, the 900 number points to passwordtwoenter.com, which is a website registered to Seychelles offshore company Global Voice S.A. with registered address at Suite 13, First Floor, Oliaji Trade Center, Francis Rachel Street, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles. This is a registered address of Seychelles offshore agent Mossack Fonseca & Co (Seychelles) Ltd.
Eckelberry informed that users infected with the Trojan see a full-screen message, which looks like an error generated by Windows. He also provided the wording of the message to help PC users recognise the virus. The wording is as follows: “ERROR: Browser Security and Antiadware [sic] Software component license exprited [sic]. Surfing PORN, ADULT and some other kind of sites you like without this software is dangerous and threatens with infection of your computer by harmful viruses, adware, spyware, etc.” The message includes update window that tells to click to activate new license. This leads to another screen that tells US users to dial a 900 telephone number as well as enter a personal identification number (PIN). If the number indicated on the page does not work, users get the instructions to dial alternate numbers - one of them is located in the West African nation of Cameroon, while the other is a satellite telephone number. After the Delf.ctk Trojan horse installs and runs, the user is completely locked out of the system, and, to return control of the PC, the user has to pay up dialing the number.
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12.05.07
Posted in Seychelles CSL, Seychelles IBC, Seychelles legislation, Seychelles offshore jurisdiction at 1:27 pm by Robert Klien
Recently the Seychelles International Business Authority (SIBA) has informed about proposed amendments in Seychelles offshore legislation. It is expected that Seychelles IBC Act and CSL Act will be amended, but Seychelles Mutual Fund Act 1997 will be replaced by new Mutual Fund Act.
The SIBA has stated that Seychelles is experiencing a surge in its international business level, and, according to it, in 2006 Seychelles recorded another important increase in its International Business Companies (IBCs) registration. The jurisdiction registered a record number of new companies being formed in 2006 – 8237 companies. This number represents a 16% increase over the year 2005. The total amount of companies on SIBA register as at December 2006 was 33161 companies. The SIBA noted that the above-mentioned results make Seychelles, perhaps one of the most favoured offshore jurisdictions in the world.
In order to maintain the continuous growth and to adopt the country in the competitive environment, Seychelles has proposed amendments to the existing legislation. According to the SIBA, the amendments will align the jurisdiction with such well-regulated jurisdictions as the BVI, the Cayman Islands and Jersey.
The proposed amendments published by the Seychelles International Business Authority are proposed amendments to the IBC Act, proposed amendments to the Seychelles Special Licences Companies Act, and proposed new Mutual Fund Act.
The proposed amendments rare expected to improve the existing legislation as to allow Seychelles to remain at the forefront of the developing offshore industry. And, as far as Seychelles’ offshore industry growth is going on, we should expect to hear a lot more about Seychelles as an offshore centre in the near future.
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11.21.07
Posted in SIBA, Seychelles IBC, Seychelles offshore jurisdiction at 5:45 am by Robert Klien
The Seychelles International Business Authority (SIBA) has recently issued a public warning notice.
The Authority intended to warn the public about 2 companies that claim to be on the Register of IBCs of the Seychelles International Business Authority. However, SIBA has stated that this information is false as far as the names of the 2 companies are not on the Authority’s records.
The companies not included in the Register of IBCs of SIBA are the following:
- NCC INVESTMENTS HOLDING;
- NCC INVESTMENTS LLC.
According to the information provided by SIBA, the person connected with the above-mentioned companies identified himself as Carlos Alberto da Silva Duarte with Portuguese Passport no: F-560657. SIBA informed that Carlos Alberto da Silva Duarte is trying to procure originals of certificates for NCC INVESTMENTS HOLDING and NCC INVESTMENTS LLC from the local Corporate Services Providers and could possibly be transacting under the above-mentioned company names.
The Seychelles International Business Authority urged all people considering dealing with NCC INVESTMENTS HOLDING, NCC INVESTMENTS or Carlos Alberto da Silva Duarte to exercise the greatest possible caution before proceeding. Anyone who has entered into dealings with one of the companies or the person are welcomed to contact the Seychelles International Business.
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04.25.07
Posted in Business and Economy, Seychelles IBC at 8:42 am by Robert Klien
The Small Enterprise Promotion Agency (SEnPA) has opened offices in district administrations in various districts around Mahé in order to decentralize its services bringing them closer to the public.
This service started on April 2, 2007. It was initiated by SEnPA to improve the service offered to more than 800 businesses registered with this agency.
Maryse Berlouis, the managing director of SEnPA, commented decentralizing the following way: “Instead of sitting in an office waiting for business owners to come to us in Victoria, we can now go to them and offer our services since most of them are based and run from their own residences.”
The services provided by the agency include, but are not limited to, providing professional advice to existing and potential cottage industry businesses, providing information on facilities and support offered, assisting with queries on setting up cottage industry businesses, analyzing the businesses of entrepreneurs and developing ways of improving them.
The Small Enterprise Promotion Agency was established in August 2004 to promote and develop small enterprises, crafts and cottage industries in Seychelles. Its objectives are the promotion of small enterprises as well as development of crafts and cottage industries in collaboration with the Ministry, the implementation of the policy and strategies of the Seychellois Government related to crafts and cottage industries, the supervision of the construction and management of the infrastructure of micro enterprise centre projects, the identification of obstacles of sustainable development and proposing solutions regarding this, etc.
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02.16.07
Posted in Seychelles IBC, Seychelles banking, Seychelles offshore jurisdiction at 3:00 pm by Robert Klien
The SIBA website provides quite a complete library of Seychelles legislative acts regulating offshore financial services as well as a list of Licensed Corporate Services Provioders (CSP). Currently, there are 36 corporate Services Providers listed there, inluding also such offshore professionals known worldwide as Ocra (Seychelles), Fidelity (Seychelles), Mossack Fonseca and others.
Another important resource provided by SIBA website is various application forms and guides needed for undertaking offshore business in the Seychelles. For example, Guide to become a Corporate Services Provider in Seychelles, CSP Application form, Guide to Compliance for CSP, Application Guidelines for Special License Company (CSL), CSL - Application Form as well as various application forms for International Trade Zone business and ship and yacht registration.
For the first acquaintance with Seychelles offshore services, there is a good description about the key offshore services: International Business Companies (IBC), Mutual Funds, Offshore Banking, Offshore Insurance, International Trusts and Ship Registration.
As regards the latest updates on Double Taxation treaties, Budget Speech and latest news for whole offshore jurisdiction – sometimes this information is outdated (for example, currently the latest news are avaialble for the first half of 2006), but anyway, comparing with other Seychelles resources providing offshore business information, SIBA provides far away the most detailed and most up-to-date information about Seychelles offshore financial services.
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02.12.07
Posted in Seychelles CSL, Seychelles IBC, Seychelles banking, Seychelles offshore jurisdiction at 5:51 pm by Robert Klien
When it comes to Seychelles offshore services, the organization number 1 in Seychelles is undoubtedly the Seychelles International Business Authority (SIBA) established in February 1995.
SIBA is an organization corporate with board members who are prominent participants of both government and the private sector.
The Seychelles International Business Authority is a body that both licenses and regulates primary offshore activities. This body represents the Registrar for International Business Companies (IBCs) and trusts and a regulator of International Trade Zone activities. With its dedicated professionals and carefully worked-out systems, the Authority can provide swift name approvals, incorporation and licensing, while spending minimal periods of time on bureaucracy. As a result, certificates of incorporation, for example, may be issued within just one hour. So, SIBA is one of the fastest Registrars all over the world.
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