Archive for April 3rd, 2011
Gallery and bank top bosses
(CNS): Cayman’s top employers were named on Friday at an Oscars-type ceremony held at the Marriott Beach Resort, with Scotiabank taking the Top Employer of the Year award for a large organisation and the National Gallery winning the accolade for best small to medium-sized employer. According to the organizers the winners gained staff support because of the work-life balance the employers offered to their people. In a close run competition, in which employees were able to give feedback on their employers via a special survey, KPMG were just pipped at the post by Scotiabank, and took the second place spot.
Meanwhile, CUC came in third, RBC Wealth Management fourth and AON fifth, all in the large organisation category. Rawlinson & Hunter and FirstCaribbean International Bank also made the final seven shortlist in this category.
In the SME Category the National Gallery beat accountancy firm BDO, who came in second place and CML recruitment consultants, who came in third.
Organised by the Cayman Islands Society for HR Professionals, the Top Employer of the Year event is now in its second year and aims to highlight the best employers in Cayman, looking at specific criteria such as the physical environment in which employees work, the work atmosphere, company benefits and management practices, to determine which company should take the accolade.
Employers must make an application to participate and a large portion of the final marks comes from the employee survey.
CISHRP Past President Phil Jackson, one of the chief organisers of the event, said that Scotiabank scored particularly well with the judges (overseas HR experts from Canada) because of the excellent work/life balance that it generates for its employees as well as training and development opportunities for its staff. The National Gallery took the top spot because of similar reasons, as well as its community-minded activities and dynamic approach.
“Judges found that a general theme that ran through the employee surveys when it came to the winning companies was that employees all possessed a high level of trust in their organisation and all had a high level of commitment to community involvement,” Jackson said.
Cayman & Dubai sign deal
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) has formally established bilateral ties with the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) through a memorandum of understanding. The MOU, signed by CIMA’s Managing Director, Cindy Scotland, received endorsement by the premier during his recent trip to Dubai. McKeeva Bush was present when representatives from DFSA signed on Wednesday. “The MOU with DFSA reinforces the regulator-to-regulator cooperation which the government of the Cayman Islands fully supports,” said Bush. “As I have previously stated, there are many synergies between our jurisdictions and I am proud to have been able to be a part of this solidification in our ongoing relationship with Dubai.”
The agreement adds to a list of 20 existing MOUs and similar accords which CIMA has with international counterparts will govern cooperation and the exchange of information between the organisations, which officials said was already taking place on an informal basis.
Signing on behalf of the DFSA, Chief ExecutivePaul Koster, said the DFSA was pleased to formalize the arrangement with CIMA. “Both authorities are integrated regulators striving to embrace best practice and seeking to reflect the resolutions of the international standard-setters,” he added.
DFSA is the independent regulator of all financial and ancillary services conducted through DIFC. The DFSA’s regulatory mandate covers asset management, banking and credit services, securities, collective investment funds, custody and trust services, commodities futures trading, Islamic finance, insurance, an international equities exchange and an international commodities derivatives exchange. In addition, DFSA, like CIMA, complies with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision and is a member of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).
It is also a signatory to the multilateral MOU with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), and has a number of other agreements in place. The DFSA has over 50 bilateral memoranda of understanding with regulators in jurisdictions across the world including the UK, Jersey, Isle of Man, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal and Malta.
Managing Director Cindy Scotland said the MOU reinforces CIMA’s strong international cooperation regime, further demonstrating its commitment.
“CIMA is pleased to formally recognise the cooperation that has existed between our jurisdictions and we look forward to continuing that. This MOU will create a framework that will facilitate greater assistance between us – the regulators of financial services in Cayman and Dubai – with regard to effectively carrying out our duties," said Scotland.
In addition to the DFSA, and IOSCO, CIMA has bilateral and multilateral MOUs and other information-exchange agreements with financial regulators in Argentina, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, the Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jersey, Malta, Mexico, Panama, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the UK, and the USA. The multi-lateral agreements include one with four USA federal banking regulators and another with eight Caribbean banking regulators.
The agreements can be viewed in the Regulatory Framework / International Agreements section of CIMA’s website: International Agreements.