In an exciting new development this year, they introduce results from the Global HNW Insights Survey, which was created in collaboration with Scorpio Partnership. This survey provides direct insights from HNWIs regarding their levels of confidence in the industry, their objectives, how they invest, as well as the types of relationships and services they are looking for from their wealth management firms and trusted advisors. The survey garnered responses from more than 4,400 HNWIs in 21 countries across five regions, making it one of the largest and most in-depth studies of its kind.

For the third year in a row, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean continued to attract growing flows of foreign direct investment (FDI). The figures for 2012 were particularly significant because they were set in an international context of falling global FDI flows. The new increase in FDI posted brought the region’s share of global FDI flows up to 12% in 2012. Economic growth in the region (3%) and the high prices of natural resources have undoubtedly contributed to sustaining the level of foreign investment in the region over the past year.

This document offers a qualitative overview of FDI inflows and looks at the relative importance of the different destination sectors in the host economies, and the geographical origin of these capital flows. The performance of FDI from Latin American and Caribbean countries is also examined, affording particular attention to the expansion of some of the region’s largest firms, the trans-Latins. The report also analyses the phenomenon of FDI income, which has become increasingly significant in the past 10 years, and takes a detailed look at FDI in the agricultural sector.

The Report states that economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is expected to rebound to 3.5 percent in 2013 after 3 percent in 2012, thanks to stronger external demand and the effects of earlier policy easing in some major countries in the region.

The region continues to benefit from favorable external financing conditions and relatively high commodity prices, but these tailwinds are unlikely to last forever. The key challenges for policymakers today are preserving macroeconomic and financial stability, and building strong foundations for sustained growth in the future. More prudent fiscal policy would help ease pressure on capacity constraints, mitigate the widening of current account deficits, and prepare the economies better to deal with adverse external shocks. Exchange rate flexibility and prudential measures should continue to be used to discourage speculative capital flows. Sustaining strong output growth will require structural reforms to raise productivity growth.

• Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes: How do countries rate
• Automatic Exchange of Information: the next step
• Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting

This report consists of two parts:

Part I is the Progress Report to the G20 by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, in response to the G20 Finance Ministers request expressed in November 2012 and reiterated in February 2013.

Part II is a report by the OECD on current tax work of relevance to tackle offshore tax evasion and tax avoidance.

The published report emphasises that the views expressed are those of the staff team and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of The Bahamas or the Executive Board of the IMF. Some highlights:

• The Bahamian financial system faces no obvious near-term threats to financial stability. The onshore banking system is well capitalized, liquid, and profitable. Credit risk, particularly for mortgages, will need to be monitored closely in view of existing high non-performing loan (NPL) rates and ongoing economic uncertainties. Stress tests show that the onshore banks can withstand severe shocks to solvency and liquidity.

• The offshore financial sector is very large, with total offshore bank assets equivalent to 75 times GDP at end-2011, although this mainly reflects large treasury operations of global banks intermediated through the system. Interconnections are predominantly between offshore banks and their foreign parents, and strict firewalls protect the domestic economy and financial system from the offshore sector. A lack of detailed data prevented a more complete assessment of this sector, including stress testing or the calculation of financial soundness indicators.

• Financial system oversight has improved greatly over the last decade and the authorities continue to act with resolve on a wide variety of fronts to institute further improvements. However, further strengthening is needed to ensure the financial system remains robust well into the future, particularly in insurance and securities where relatively new legislation is in place, and in pensions, where governing legislation is pending. The offshore sector is supervised on the same principles as the onshore sector, but the vast majority of assets are held in branches and therefore not subject to local capital requirements.

• The crisis management and financial safety net framework has not been tested and is in need ofmodernization.

The IMF also published the latest Article IV Consultation Report. Thomas Hockin, Executive Director for The Bahamas and Carlos Alberto de Resende, Alternate Executive Director state:

“On behalf of our Bahamian authorities, we continue to appreciate the policy discussions with the Fund. We welcome the thorough and balanced assessment of the country’s economic situation and financial system made by the Article IV and FSAP mission. We are particularly satisfied with the recognition of the country’s strong bank supervision framework and that risks to financial stability are minimal.

Although we broadly agree with the staff’s assessment of the medium-term challenges facing the authorities, we emphasize the need for a balanced approach between fiscal sustainability and policies to foster inclusive growth and diversification of the economy. This is particularly important in light of the high unemployment rate and the high-cost infrastructural development that is typical of economies based in geographically dispersed archipelagos, such as The Bahamas.

The report outlines a sensible set of policy options, mostly in tune with initiatives already being implemented or in the process of being implemented by the authorities, such as the tax and public financial management reforms.”

Summary: Emerging-market fortunes differ from those in mature markets in terms of the openness of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) about their holdings and fortunes, as well as their countrymen’s attitudes toward gathering wealth. Although entrepreneurs from emerging markets have made impressive strides in building global companies, they are still at a disadvantage in terms of creating global brands. Because their fortunes are mostly first generation, the personal money management practices in the emerging markets are also at an earlier stage than in mature markets.

London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore remain the top four centres.

GFCI 13 says offshore centres suffered significant reputational damage in 2008 and 2009. "They have been recovering since GFCI 10. GFCI 13 shows good progress in ratings for all offshore centres, though most experience relative declines in rankings since other financial centres have progressed."

Jersey and Guernsey remain the leading centres followed by Monaco which ranks 35th, up 25 places.

The Inter-American Development Bank has released its 2013 Latin American and Caribbean Macroeconomic Report.

Abstract: Global growth projections have waned since last year and growth may be suppressed below potential for several years to come. Lower global growth will, all things being equal, imply lower growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. At the same time, clear limits to the potential use of monetary and fiscal policy measures pose another constraint. Consequently, countries should consider further structural reform measures to enhance economic prospects and to escape suppressed global growth. If all countries pursue reforms to enable growth to accelerate by 1.5% on average, then the effect on the region as a whole may reach 2.3% additional growth per annum.

It says the outlook for Latin American and Caribbean sovereigns is stable on the whole, with the large majority of the countries in the region continuing to carry stable outlooks. The report notes, “With external risks receding and with many countries having developed stronger defences against those risks in recent years, the key credit challenges facing the region will be idiosyncratic to individual countries.”