Bankers call for collaboration

“There can be no delays and the time for discussion should be expeditious and always cognisant of the fact that failure to pass this legislation could have serious consequences for the stability of the financial sector moving forward,” BATT said in a release yesterday.

BATT’s comments were in response to the current public discord between Government and the Opposition regarding the bill. The bill was the subject of debate in the parliament on Friday.

BATT said that it’s members have been preparing for FATCA’s implementation over the past four years and were ready to meet the reporting requirements once the Board of Inland Revenue initiates the implementation process. There are significant impacts for non-compliance with the FATCA regime on the individual citizen and the business customer, BATT said.

“If non-compliant,” BATT said, “local banks may be restricted or cut off from relationships with correspondent banks internationally, resulting in reduced availability or unavailability to clients of everyday banking services that we take for granted.” These include remittance services, credit card and wire transactions, and other services requiring access to the US financial system.

Banks that do not comply with FATCA are subject to the imposition of a 30 percent withholding tax on US source payments that they receive.