Closely located to South America, and being part of The Netherlands’ Caribbean Antilles, Curaçao, with its close connectivity to Europe and its stable political and economic environment, is an ideal jurisdiction to establish financial operations and is home to many of the world’s leading financial institutions.
Benefits of Banking in Curaçao
Forming part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Curaçao is an associate member of the European Community, with the Supreme Court of the Netherlands serving as the highest legal authority. Comprising a multicultural and multilingual society, Curaçao is the largest island of the Dutch Caribbean, enjoying substantial professional presence and excellent airline connections and port facilities.
Curaçao’s ideal geographical location and close connectivity to Europe and its stable political environment make Curaçao the ideal financial and logistical focal point for doing business. It complies with international standards of integrity approved by the OECD and FATF. Its system is protected by high-standard anti-money laundering provisions and by the high-quality prudential supervision of the Central Bank of Curaçao & St. Maarten, the main regulatory authority. Curaçao also offers excellent international financial planning options via tax treaty networks and is an independent high-quality Dutch Legal system with knowledge of civil and common law structure.
CBCS Supervision
The Central Bank of Curacao & St. Maarten (CBCS) is in charge of the safety and soundness of the financial institutions and the well-functioning of the financial system in the countries Curaçao and St. Maarten. CBCS provides a regulatory and supervisory framework for prudential supervision and a fair and transparent financial market.
The regulatory framework also promotes financial integrity and aims to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing activities and safeguarding the interest of the depositors and other creditors of the financial institutions. Our bank’s reviews by and reports to CBCS entails ongoing supervision using a risk-based approach through both on-site and off-site supervision with emphasis on monitoring the liquidity and solvency of the institution.
Anti-Money Laundering and Counterfeiting of Terrorism
The following laws regarding anti money laundering practices and the counterfeiting of terrorism are in place in Curacao and are applicable to every financial institution in the island:
- The National Ordinance Penalization of Money Laundering (NOPML) prohibits any type of money laundering activities;
- The National Ordinance on the Reporting of Unusual Transactions (NORUT) obliges service providers acting in the course of a business or profession, to report unusual transactions and;
- The National Ordinance on Identification of clients when Rendering Services (NOIS) requires any service provider who is acting in the course of a profession or business, to establish the identity of a customer before providing any financial service.
Also, Curaçao is a member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, which forms part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) based in Switzerland. It has enacted up-to-date legislation for combating money laundering, including ‘Know Your Client” (KYC) rules. These initiatives resulted in the broad acceptance of Curaçao by developed countries and global organizations focusing on fair tax practices.