Bermuda: UK FCO says it's not up to snuff

The Bermuda Monetary Authority provides "significant help where required to put criminals in jail in foreign jurisdictions [but] does not proactively investigate suspicious circumstances themselves."

That's according to a report from the UK's Foreign Affairs Committee. The Committee Chairman, a Labour MP named Mike Grapes said "We recommend that the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) should encourage Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar to continue making progress in improving financial regulation, in particular in arrangements for investigating money laundering."

The report says that there should be a separate investigative branch to handle financial crime.

But the Report also had an interesting divergence from the usual unqualified attacks on British Dependent Territories quoted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ""We need to recognise there is significant international pressure to limit the role of the Overseas Territories in providing international financial services. The Overseas Territories are often expected to apply higher standards of regulation than some OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries."