The Bank of Butterfield's Cayman Islands subsidiary is assisting the Caymans Government with plans for a $163 million bond issue which will be issued to retire the domicile's public debt.

Cayman Financial Secretary Mr. George McCarthy told Cayman Net News that the Cayman Legislative Assembly will be asked to pass a bill authorising facilitate the bond issue, which will be used to pay off Government's public debt which is approximately 113 million Cayman dollars. “The money will be negotiated in United States currency and will essentially ease some of the pressure on Government's revenue, since the payments over a 15 year period would be less than if the country was repaying its current debts without the benefit of the bond issue.

“Currently interest rates are relatively low, making the market significantly advantageous for lenders and so, according to Mr. McCarthy, the government has been advised to hold off until the timing is “good”. Had the original intention to set up this bond issue by the end of this year been pursued, the government might well have ‘paid something like ten points over and above what the normal bond rate would have been'.”

Mr. McCarthy added: “First of all we will have to develop a prospectus and so the banks through which we are dealing with, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Butterfield are assisting us in the process.”