The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) is responsible for the supervision and regulation of over twenty thousand financial service entities across multiple sectors (Banking, Fiduciary, Insurance, and Investments & Securities) in accordance with relevant international standards.

In 2014, the Cayman Islands was ranked number one against the world’s specialized financial jurisdictions. CIMA aimed to revolutionize its financial regulation to position the country as the offshore center where all financial institutions strive to conduct business. This meant enabling complete business-user self-sufficiency through simple, straight-forward processes to achieve unprecedented customer experience leadership.

CIMA attempted to automate the frustrating, hardcopy filer experience and labor-intensive internal processes previously, without success. The regulator was forced to rely on the vendor to constantly make technical changes to rules for data collection, straining monetary resources. The decision was made to displace the incumbent XBRL software vendor with a comprehensive solution offering business user self-sufficiency to minimize reliance on outside consultants.

CIMA engaged in a comprehensive tender evaluation process for the new Regulatory Enhanced Electronic Forms Submission (REEFS) system, with the SQL Power Suite identified as the best regulatory software in the world. The solution proved to be a perfect fit, geared toward rapid deployment and business user self-sufficiency.

Phase 1 of the solution was rolled out in less than 6 months, providing a unified platform for real-time interaction with regulated and prospective entities. The solution successfully automated every aspect of data collection for over 38 financial returns, including financial returns management, license application processing, certificate generation, and on-demand requests – and was paired with robust analytics for substantially deeper and more accurate modelling and reporting. The solution additionally integrates with an eSignature module, as well as CIMA’s in-house payment and CRM systems.

“With a competitor’s solution, CIMA spent 4 years and $4.0 Million to automate 2 returns; while with the SQL Power solution we were able to automate 38 returns in 6 months for less than half the price,” said CIMA Head of IT.