Article Published in the Offshore Investment
Magazine June 2000

The laws passed include The International Business Companies Act, The International Trusts Act, The International Mutual Funds Act, The International Trusts Act, The International Banks Act and the Registered Agent & Trustee Licensing Act. While these laws are designed to meet client demands they are unique in that they are formulated to collectively provide effective regulation even though the capital requirements for banks and insurance companies are relatively low. The IBC has the distinctions of allowing an election either to pay tax at 1% or to be exempted, as well as having an annual license fee of only $300 regardless of the stated capital of the company. Trusts formed under the International Trusts Act will be able to benefit from aggressive well thought out asset protection provisions that are in line with other competing centers. The Mutual funds act allows for private and public funds that can be constituted either as IBC’s or as trusts.

St. Lucia’s entry into the industry is expected to succeed not only as a result of the effective legislation but because of a state of the art registry system. Based on consumer demands and industry trends, the strategic decision was taken to develop an online international business companies registry and to promote and market this registry as “Pinnacle St. Lucia the world’s only public online IBC registry”.

The system is public and will be used by individual clients, the Local Registered Agents (LRA), the Licensed International Professionals (LIP), (who are overseas agents associated with the LRAs), the Registrar of International Business Companies and the Director of Financial Services. Each user will have the ability to carry out various functions based on their respective needs and the control that a registry system requires. These functions in the past could only have been completed by physically visiting a companies Registry, or by using traditional communication and research methods.

Through this unique system any individual will be able to access the registry through the Internet via the Pinnacle St. Lucia web site to perform the following functions:

Conduct name searches, allowing the user at no cost to determine whether a name is available for reservation or an eventual incorporation.

Reserve names for 30 days to use for a future incorporation of an IBC.

Complete, review and submit an IBC incorporation application to an LRA who the user is able to select online. LRAs are able to complete online the incorporation process by reviewing and submitting IBC incorporation applications to the Registrar.

Receive instant notification of his/her IBC incorporation, and immediate access to that IBC’s register. An IBC register has been developed which is a very effective and easily understood means of documenting and tracking the changes to essential public company information. Each company in the IBC registry will be assigned an identifier and separate register. The register will include the name of the IBC, incorporation date, registered agent, memorandum and articles of association and all transactions effected. This model is unique in the industry and is expected to be very well received by clients and other registry users.

View free of charge the register of any company with which s/he is associated either as a client, an LRA or an LIP.

Request and view online the register of any IBC incorporated in St. Lucia. This function can be used by any person seeking public information on companies with which they are not associated, upon payment of the requisite fee.

Request certificates and certified copies: For a fixed fee all public information will be copied, certified and couriered to the person making the request any where in the world.

Communicate with any user (LIP, LRA, the Registrar, and clients), in relation to any company or request through a secure and private message box system.

Pay for registry services online through the use of a credit card either by the client or registered agent as applicable.

The system is designed to be consistent with the law. Only the local registered agent who has been approved by the Minister for International Financial Services may submit companies for incorporation. Other users may complete the incorporation applications but they must choose an LRA to represent them. There is even an online due diligence questionnaire to make the work of the LRA that much easier. Significantly, on request of the client and after the requirements of the IBC Act have been met, the LRAs can request online an amendment to the memorandum and articles of association with respect to any IBC he/she represents.

Considerable effort and expense have been invested to ensure that the system is secure and that an unparalleled level of service is provided. The registry system guarantees user security and confidentiality as the transfer of data is more secure than other traditional communication methods. All online transactions are safe and supported by the best and latest technologies available, including Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 128 bit encryption security, which is the highest commercial data transfer encryption security available worldwide.

Competing Caribbean and international jurisdictions are seeking to develop truly online registry services. Though there are some territories promoting the online registry concept, this is often limited to merely name reservation and or access that is limited to local service providers and their agents. None of them are public; therefore the client does not have any access to his company records or to other registry data. Pinnacle St. Lucia has crossed this bridge and is poised to place this island paradise on the map as being an I.T. leader and at the forefront of innovations in this industry.

With this leading edge technology, St. Lucia will have a great advantage over other jurisdictions, as the system will provide to clients and professional advisors the ability to instantly access information on the affairs of international business companies with a responsiveness not currently seen in the industry. This is advantageous to the client as additional costs/fees ordinarily incurred when obtaining information from an IBC Registry are reduced substantially. For example, a client traditionally when requesting a company search or requesting copies of documents would be billed by an agent not only the prescribed fee of the request, but also for the per hour fee of the agent’s services for executing this request (i.e. man hours taken to visit the IBC registry, search records, prepare documents, etc.). The professional advisor no longer has to physically visit the Registry in order to provide the service required by his client. This can now be done from a computer terminal in his office, at his home, in a hotel room, or anywhere else in the world he may be.

The system will be functional on line in June this year. Presently, the final testing and developmental touches are being completed. Training programs are also being prepared and will start for the LRAs in mid May. It is anticipated that LRAs will find this system extremely useful, as it will rid them of the onerous burden of producing several hard copies for incorporation and at the same time allow them to process a greater number of applications more quickly and thoroughly.

In addition to the online registry, the web site (www.pinnaclestlucia.com) has been designed to promote the country and its key economic sectors. There is visitor information for tourists and links to hotel and other related sites. The attractiveness of the country for manufacturing and other investors is also be highlighted. It is anticipated that this information section will ensure that even if the site visitor does not use Pinnacle’s services s/he will not escape the beauty, charm and opportunity St. Lucia offers.

Pinnacle St. Lucia has thought of everything the user requires of an online corporate registry. This combined with the legislation developed certainly set St. Lucia apart from the competition and will be a major factor in the success of this jurisdiction in the financial services industry.

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