Governance

The Authority or SIFA was established in  May 2005 after the enactment of the Samoa International Finance Authority Act 2005.
 
Previously, Samoa’s International Finance Centre was regulated by the Office of the Registrar of International and Foreign Companies with a different structure operating as a quasi government unit within the Central Bank of Samoa.  
 
The present-day structure of the Authority reflects a major transformation; the Steering Committee is replaced by a Board of Directors which is presided over by the Governor of the Central Bank.  The new Board of seven (7) directors retains four (4) Government officials, the Governor of the Central Bank of Samoa who is also Chairman, Chief Executive Officer – Ministry of Finance, Attorney General, Chief Executive Officer – Samoa International Finance Authority and three (3) private sector directors.
 
In accordance with the Trustees Companies Act 1987, licensed trustee companies are the local agents through which clients enter our jurisdiction. Trustee companies must necessarily be “fit and proper” in terms of their integrity, competence and solvency.  Trustee companies perform a crucial role in our operations, being in the frontline of our Centre.  Rather than clients engaging our services directly, for registration of offshore entities, our government contrived a policy at inception, to license trustee companies (also called Corporate Services Providers) to deal directly with users of our Centre. Such policy was deliberate to ensure that only established professionals, with international connections and of good standing, are licensed, as agents, can provide corporate services to clients.  Licensed trustee companies are obliged to “know their clients” and have pre-acceptance criteria in place for such purpose.  
 
Overall, the creation of SIFA was an acknowledgement that to address new challenges, we needed to adopt a new structure, new approach and new solutions.  Only in this way can SIFA become more responsive to the rapid changes in the global financial environment.

The following represents the current structure of SIFA:

The daily operations of the Authority have been mandated to the supervision of the Chief Executive Officer, Management and Support Staff. The Authority employs eighteen (19) staff, whom are divided into three (3) sections, Registration, Accounts and Administration as illustrated by the ORGANIZational chart in Figure 2. The three (3) sections broadly represent the main functions within the Office as outlined in the reports from each section.
 

SIFA has made all reasonable efforts to ensure that the translations and information on its website is as accurate as can be. The information is provided in good faith with no guarantee as to the accuracy of any translation and information.

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