Forgotten World (241): Cayman Islands

It’s time for one of the regular weeks of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that too rarely feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 240 entries here. I think we’ll make this the last batch for a series which has been running on this blog for over five years and has covered almost every spot of land on the globe.

Once a dependency of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands came under direct British rule after Jamaica declared independence in 1962. Granted greater autonomy under a 1972 constitution, the islands are largely self-governing and economically self-sufficient. Tourism, banking and property are big money earners, having overtaken the traditional trades of fishing, turtle hunting and shipbuilding.

More than 9,000 mutual funds, some 260 banks and 80,000 companies operate through the islands meaning that the territory has more registered businesses than it has people (about 55,700). The industry has come under scrutiny and the government has enforced stricter banking regulation to counter money laundering.


 




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