Bermuda holds an excellent record as a financially “clean” jurisdiction, Governor George Fergusson told this week’s Second Annual Financial Crime and Compliance Seminar.

Bermuda draws business to its shores “partly by offering tough regulations — which isn’t necessarily what the person in the street in Washington, Paris or London assumes”, Mr Fergusson noted.

He called on “respectable” small jurisdictions to campaign back against snubs from abroad against their transparency and regulation.

“It may, sadly, often be difficult to maintain a pure image even when it is deserved,” Mr Fergusson said. “But getting the substance right and keeping it clean is essential if the model is to be preserved over time.”

He extolled Bermuda as a leader among the number of countries with which it holds tax information exchange arrangements, with “a long-standing registry of beneficial ownership”.

Mr Fergusson added: “But for Bermuda and the similar jurisdictions internationally, in a world in which new rules — and sometimes the questionable challenges to them — change very fast, not changing means to fall behind. It isn’t a very relaxing process — but the alternatives are worse.”