Another day's trading is under way. When Agha Hasan Abedi, BCCI's founder and moving spirit, incorporated the Caymans into his global operation, he chose well. The buccaneers and privateers who first settled there in 1670 would have recognised a kindred spirit. The Caymans are a banker's dream. There are more companies registered on the island than there are people, with one bank for every 31 man, woman and child.
Discretion is guaranteed.
The Caymans suited BCCI for two reasons. As a banking haven it attracted large amounts of private deposits from clients who preferred to keep their money away from the prying eyes of their governments. The second advantage of the Caymans was its low tax rates. Abedi was keen to book as much of the bank's business as possible in the Caymans rather than under the hostile tax regimes of many of the Third World countries in which BCCI operated. BCCI's auditors advised it to set some money aside in case it got a tax demand for the treasury's profits.