Anjouan - Banking System

Banking System

Anjouan, pursuant to the Regulation of Banks and Comparable Establishments of 1999, licensed more than 300 offshore banks. All of the shell banks and other entities are located offshore and have no permanent presence in the Comoros. Anjouan sold the right to issue bank licenses and delegated most of its authority to operate and regulate the offshore business to private, non-Comoran domiciled parties. In 2002, after Anjouan's reentry into the Union of the Comoros as an autonomous island, Anjouan's Offshore Finance Authority was established to promote the island as a tax haven to attract foreign capital. In 2005, new laws were passed and all of the banking licenses issued there previous to that date were cancelled those that could show proper due diligence were reset up by the newly rearranged Offshore Finance Authority, monopolized by Anjouan Corporate Services Limited since 2003, which has claimed the authority as registered agent for all International Business Companies and banking license issuance on the island since that time and authorized directly by the Legislative Assembly in Anjouan. It should also be noted that the company claiming to sell licenses previous to 2003 were sued in the London High Court on behalf of the Anjouan Government and lost, The High Court of Justice in London confirmed after seeing all the legal documentation that Anjouan Corporate Services Ltd, were legally entitled to operate the offshore business, with full consent of the Anjouan Government.

The Central Bank of the Comoros claims sole authority to issue banking licenses (although they have no offshore legislation in place and are not equipped to handle any International Due Diligence) and the regulation of banks on any island in the Union. How that would be legal, in light of the 2002 treaty under which Anjouan rejoined the Comoros Union as an autonomous island, is unclear. The United States Department of State and the Union government officials in Grande-Comore claim Anjouan no longer issue banking licenses to offshore entities, that current legal licensing authority rests with Union authorities, and the Anjouan counterparts are under Union control which undermines completely the 2002 treaty. However, the already established offshore entities remain outside Union control, and the entity to which the Anjouan authorities sold licensing authority are still issuing licenses in the name of Anjouan. Further, they claim that offshore banks operating from the autonomous islands of the Union of the Comoros with full authorization from the legislative Assembly, they claim to have legally signed authority ( which the High courts in London confirmed are legal ). Because the involved computer servers and illicit “entities” are located outside the Comoros, ( which applies in today's technical arena as normal practice )the Union government lacks the jurisdiction and capacity to act beyond the announcements and warnings regarding the illegal entities. The Comoran government has solicited the law enforcement authorities in France to locate the perpetrators, who apparently live in France, What is interesting is that the Island of Moheli have been selling banking Licenses for the past 10 years with no problems from the Union authorities at all. They operate a web site with all their details, however there are no offshore authorities or offshore legislation there at all, the web site is not even operated from Moheli but from South Africa.