Bermuda is being subjected to “slow torture” by an international economic organisation, according to Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards.The One Bermuda Alliance MP told the House of Assembly his party viewed the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with a “huge amount of scepticism” and believed it was trying to “take places like Bermuda out of existence”.“There is no question about that,” claimed Mr Richards. “They view Bermuda as an aberration.”He was speaking during debate on new legislation, approved by MPs yesterday, which places more requirements on companies to maintain records and accounts.Premier and Finance Minister Paula Cox, introducing the Specified Business Legislation Amendment Act 2012, explained: “The bill seeks to amend various pieces of specified business legislation to ensure consistency, transparency, and compliance with international tax information exchange standards, recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.”Mr Richards said keeping up with the standards recommended by the OECD, was a “kind of subtle way of slow torture”.He added: “Last year we had some requirements from this organisation that we fulfilled. This year, the Minister has brought to the House further progress, more fulfillments that we have to fulfill, more requirements that we have fulfilled.“My thesis is that this will be a never-ending exercise. Insofar as Bermuda and other offshore jurisdictions are concerned, it will never be enough. We will never satisfy them.”The Opposition politician said a person could set up a bank account in an hour or a business in a day in Delaware in the US.“You try doing that in Bermuda, all of the hoops you have to go through just to open up a bank account in Bermuda. It’s incredible.”He said those in the “offshore world” were required to conduct business to a higher standard than those in the “onshore world” yet: “The capital of money laundering isn’t in Bermuda, Cayman or the Isle of Man. It’s in the United States or the UK.”Mr Richards added that the Island was being required to meet a certain standard by countries which didn’t meet that standard themselves.“Let us not take pride or anything like that in doing what we are doing here.“We are being required to do this because we are fleas on the back of the elephant and we don’t want the elephant to roll over on us.”Ms Cox said it was important to note that Bermuda — a vice chair of the OECD’s Global Forum — was a global player.She said: “You can’t say to the world ‘stop, I want to get off’. Either you are in business or you are not.”The Premier insisted the “rules of engagement” were not targeted solely to offshore jurisdictions. She said the important thing was for those regulating business to not sit in an ivory tower but to go out into industry and make the requirements known.“Notwithstanding that no-one could be more patriotic about Bermuda and the future of Bermuda than the Government, we also recognise that we can’t just pretend that 21 square miles is able to say to the OECD and others that their rules or engagements that they are crafting for the world, that we are opting out.”She said Bermuda’s role within the OECD meant it could use its “seat at the table” to ensure equity, adding: “We can’t be naive about it. We have to be sensible and practical.”Ms Cox said the legislation was “extremely important to Bermuda’s reputation in international cooperation”.Useful website: www.oecd.org.