At the initiative of the state and under its direction the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) was established in 1997. The organization was meant to be a local corporate law body conducting its duties in accordance with the Currency Control Law (effective date January 1, 1997).

The Basic Premise

The CIMA regulator holds the supervise power over various companies engaged in following activities:

• banking accommodations and related services,
• fiduciary and insurance services,
• services provided by investible funds and companies engaged in securities trading.

If there is a company wishing to obtain permission to run operations in one of the listed market segments, it has win approval from CIMA. The procedure includes providing a completed regulatory documents package to ensure complete compliance with the requirements of the regulator. Upon validation of provided data, the regulator preserves full authority to refuse a company issuance of a license, despite the fact that the service was paid in advance.

The objectives and targets of the Authority can be described as follows:

1. Development and maintenance of state financial system stability in the Cayman Islands
2. Promotion of the market confidence
3. Consumer protection and maintenance of authority of the Cayman Islands as a finance center
4. Maintaining control over regulated companies and prevention of such fraudulent activities as ‘white washing’, insider dealings, etc.
5. Registration and issuance of licenses to companies wishing to obtain the right to sell services on the territory of the Islands

The Supervisory Board is the main governing body of the CIMA Authority. The Financial Regulator’s Supervisory Board together with the Chief Operations Officer are appointed by the Governor conforming conformable to the Monetary Management Act .

The financial regulator has the state aid and is funded at its expense. Moreover, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority has to approve its annual budget and subject expenses plan for considerationas those are subsequently subject to annual audit.