Bermuda: Business Environment

In terms of business and communications infrastructure, Bermuda offers Western European standards. The business environment is particularly well-attuned to the finance sector as a result of the island's long-term policy of promoting itself as an international finance centre, accompanied by a well-developed regulatory structure; as the economy depends heavily on the offshore financial sector, the government tries hard to avoid use of the island for money laundering. For this reason foreign banks have been excluded, and the domestic banks have themselves become international financial institutions with branches in many other countries.

There is a wide range of professional services in Bermuda, particularly for the insurance, trust management and mutual fund sectors. The Government has understood the importance of e-commerce for the future of international business and is making a determined attempt to become a centre of e-commerce development, although shortages of skilled workers have presented some problems in this area.

Allowance being given for the very low tax base, Bermuda must be counted as an expensive jurisdiction due to the Government's high fees and the generally high level of salaries and other costs. On the other hand, Bermuda has possibly one of the highest reputations among IOFCs, and after issuing a 'letter of commitment' to the OECD in June 2000, took its place as an 'acceptable' jurisdiction from which to carry on international business, without having to do too much damage to its low-tax regime.

Bermuda was included on the 'white list' of compliant countries issued by the OECD in June, 2009.

This section of the lowtax.net Bermuda site describes the most important aspects of the business environment on the island.