Bahamian bank secrecy is somewhat misleading in that banking institutions are prohibited from disclosing customer or account holder information to a third party without clear consent from the account holder (think Americans may have to sign waivers of the open an account) or under a law of the Bahamas. short order. The bad part is that banking institutions can freely disclose that a particular person or company has an account at that bank. While the bank cannot, under Bahamian law, disclose specific details or account balances, it can certainly disclose who owns your accounts. This means that wholesale fishing expeditions are a distinct possibility, eg give us a list of all account holders from a certain country. Not surprisingly, 45% of deposits have left Bahamian banks since they passed this new legislation that severely compromises bank secrecy.
Bahamas corporations are not bearer shares and therefore are not anonymous. Interestingly, a Bahamas LLC cannot engage in business in the Bahamas or own real estate in the Bahamas, plus negatives.
The Bahamas receives around 5 cruises per day on average, with each cruise averaging around 2,500 people. If we calculate that each person spends on average $50 at the port and that there is a head tax of around $20 per person arriving in the Bahamas, we can see why the Bahamas compromised their secrecy and privacy. If they didn’t, they would risk losing their tourism business, which employs more people than their bank and also generates more revenue. The Bahamas was once a decent jurisdiction, but they sold out to protect their biggest industry: tourism. They have large beachfront hotels, gambling casinos, fishing, diving, etc., all more lucrative than their offshore banking.
The Bahamas does not provide anything approaching the level of privacy we require, so steer clear is our advice.