The City of Hamilton, Bermuda's capital, is a natural partner for business in Latin America.
Although Bermuda has been a British Overseas Territory for over 400 years, it was first discovered by Spanish Navigator Juan de Bermúdez in 1503.
In the 1960s, Bermuda reinvented itself through the visionary minds of what many consider Bermuda's modern day heroes, to become a true international financial centre. Due to Bermuda's innovative risk management sector, Bermuda is known as the 'Risk Capital of the World'.
Without Hamilton and its infrastructure, efficient international business sector and its expert professional services, Bermuda would not have been able to attract the attention of some of the world's best legal, financial, fiduciary and administrative minds and clientele in the reinsurance, asset management, private wealth and trusts sectors.
As international business continued growing, primarily coming from the world's developed economies, the rapidly growing major LatAm economies (Brazil,Mexico and Argentina are members of the G20) were logically seen as Bermuda's 'next frontier'.
The first order of the day, however, was to enhance the image of Bermuda as a transparent and reputable offshore domicile, thus a plan was developed to gain the trust of governments in LatAm and Iberia, mainly through Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs). The TIEAs were successfully negotiated by previous and present governments of Bermuda, in conjunction with key private sector individuals who donated their time for the greater benefit of Bermuda.
Bermuda continues to market itself through major business development initiatives to all major economies of this region, as well as staging major conferences and events that are attended by increasingly interested key LatAm industry professionals.
Bermuda was the first jurisdiction of its kind to achieve a TIEA with a Latin American country, namely Mexico. Since then, Bermuda has also signed TIEAs with Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Portugal, and finalised negotiations with Spain and Chile.
Those governments recognise that Bermuda is one of the most transparent jurisdictions in the world.
Hamilton has built an infrastructure that has adapted some of its key laws, regulations and financial vehicles to the needs of LatAm enterprises and individuals, and is the primary domicile for LatAm business.
Hamilton is now domicile to more than 250 LatAm and Iberian Peninsula entities. It is now estimated that Bermuda has registered more than two thirds of all LatAm insurance/reinsurance companies in the world and Bermuda's share is growing exponentially.
Many professional institutions including legal, accounting, insurance, banking and asset management, have dedicated and multilingual/cultural LatAm teams servicing the most important companies of that region. Some of the LatAm companies include the largest Venezuelan and Brazilian oil companies,Mexico's (and the world's) largest producer of silver, its largest producer of cement and construction materials and the largest oil and energy-services Colombian companies, just to name a few. Some LatAm companies have been domiciled in Bermuda for over 20 years.
As we tell our LatAm business partners "In Bermuda, hablamos Español, e nós também falam Português."
Article first published in Hamilton Bermuda in Business for 200 Years 1815 to 2015, June 2015
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