The Association of International Life Offices has announced that it is planning to introduce a single standard across the board for offshore insurance companies with regard to identity verification of the investor when receiving money. Quite simply, they say that standards have to be agreed to stop different markets competing or attracting business because their rules are less strict. In the UK there are extremely strict rules with regard to confirming your ID before you are allowed to invest your money.
Our view
A welcome move given that all companies have a duty to check that investments have come from legal sources. It is now also important that one investment State does not gain a competitive edge over another based upon identification rules. If a standard is not agreed it will only encourage poor enforcement of rules and ultimately illegal investment and money laundering scams.