IFSA to audit Millennium Bank

The Millennium Bank will be audited in the next few weeks.

This is according to a statement issued to SEARCHLIGHT by Executive Director of the International Financial Services Authority (IFSA), Sharda Bollers.{{more}}

According to the statement, this audit is to “confirm by independent and transparent means the Bank’s financial condition and the safety of its practices.”

Last week, SEARCHLIGHT reported that two online media organizations ran stories questioning the operations of the bank.

Both the Reuters and Businessweek.com questioned the legitimacy of the bank’s parent company United Trust of Switzerland S.A, which Adrienne Cater, in a Business Week blog of February 17, quotes a spokesperson for the Swiss banking authority as saying: “United Trust of Switzerland is not a registered/licensed bank in Switzerland and has no other license of the Swiss Financial Supervisory Authority.”

“The records of the Authority reveal that United Trust of Switzerland is the Bank’s parent company, which is duly registered in Switzerland as a trust company,” Bollers’ statement, however, said.

The questions about Millennium Bank were raised following the civil fraud charges brought against Texan billionaire Sir Robert Allen Stanford, of the Stanford International Bank.

Bollers noted these concerns when she wrote: “The enormity of the Madoff and Stanford financial scandals serve as warnings to all regulators to exercise vigilance in the exercise of their regulatory functions. The International Financial Services Authority of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is cognizant of the quandary currently facing regulatory bodies all around the world, including in the largest and most powerful nations. Consequently the lessons learned from these global experiences shall serve to strengthen the Authority’s resolution to properly regulate its licensed entities.”

Bollers said that IFSA will “move resolutely to take all necessary action in order to protect the integrity and reputation of our international financial services, as it has in the past.”