Macau | Monetary Authority revoked 13 offshore permits this year
The Monetary Authority of Macao has revoked offshore authorisation for 13 companies in the first half of this year with no new offshore permits being provided
Macau (MNA) – Some 13 offshore companies saw their authorisation to operate in Macau revoked in the first half of this year by the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM), according to a release on Wednesday in the Official Gazette.
The revocation of authorisation for offshore activities implies the dissolution and winding up of the offshore trust management institution, according to AMCM offshore regulations.
No new offshore financial institution was granted permission to practice offshore activities in Macau in this period.
Meanwhile, no offshore financial institutions or commercial entities were registered as being authorised to operate in Macau, with Portuguese banks Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) and BPI having cancelled their offshore authorisations last year, with the two banks previously being the only authorised banks to have offshore operations in Macau under offshore regulations implemented in 1987.
Some four offshores that operated in Macau in the first half of 2018 were authorised to change their names – namely, Grand Bright International (Macao Commercial Offshore) Limited; Mitec Macao Commercial Offshore Limited; Rising Manufacturing Macao Commercial Offshore Limited); Taimin Macao Commercial Offshore Limited and Elegant (Macao Commercial Offshore) Limited.
Under current Macau regulations companies that apply for offshore activity have to be included in the sectors for information equipment consultancy; information and programming consultancy; data processing; data bank services; administration and filing support services; R&D activities; technical research and analytical activities; sailing vessels and aviation equipment administration activities; and trade and services between Portuguese-speaking countries and Mainland China.
MNA questioned the AMCM and the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) on how many offshores are authorised to operate in Macau at the moment but no response had been provided by the time this article was published.
In April, IPIM revised its guidelines on preventive measures regarding anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism for Macau Commercial Offshore Services and Auxiliary Offshore Service Institutions.
This year, the Macau SAR was also delisted from a European Union blacklist of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes into a separate category of jurisdictions ‘subject to close monitoring’, with the local government pledging to improve the legal regime of its offshore business sector.
