Why we started

Twenty years of watching compliance get treated as an add-on

Judith and Christopher started Canopy after two decades inside large Cayman firms, where compliance advice usually sat alongside administration, audit or legal work and competed with it for attention. Clients kept asking for the same thing: a senior person who knew the regime, had time for the file, and had nothing else to sell them.

So Canopy is independent of every other service provider. There is no administration arm, no audit practice and no legal panel to feed. That removes the conflicts, real and perceived, that come with buying compliance from the firm that already does everything else.

It also keeps us small. We take on the work we can do well with the people we have, and we say so when an engagement is not a fit.

Glass tower reflecting a green canopy
How we work

Four things you can hold us to

A

Senior people, named

Every adviser has at least 15 years in investment funds, capital markets or banking. Nobody learns the regime on your file, and the name on the engagement letter is the name that answers the phone.

B

Plain answers

We give you a recommendation and the reasoning behind it. If the honest answer is that you need to spend money, or that a structure will not pass, we say that early rather than in a report six weeks later.

C

Current, not cached

Cayman and international requirements move constantly, from sanctions designations to supervisory expectations. Keeping clients ahead of that is part of the retainer, not a separate service.

D

Built for the entity

A single manager fund does not need a bank's programme. We scope to the business in front of us, which usually means less documentation and better controls.

Regulatory experience

We have been on the supervisor's side of the table

Our team includes a serving member of the CIMA Board of Directors, a former CIMA regulator, and advisers who have helped redraft Cayman AML regulations and guidance notes.

1 Direct involvement in Cayman AML legislative development and CFATF assessment preparation
2 Supervisory experience of how firms are assessed, and what inspectors actually ask for
3 Practical experience of remediation once findings have been issued
4 Ongoing engagement with industry bodies and the Ministry of Financial Services
Tree canopy seen through a glass roof
Where we are

Grand Cayman, working across time zones

Our clients are managed from New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore as often as they are from George Town. Officer appointments, training and reporting are all handled remotely where that suits you, in person where it does not.

Funds Hedge, private equity and closed ended structures across multiple manager jurisdictions
Banking Licensed institutions, correspondent relationships and prudential reporting
Markets CLOs, securitisation vehicles and structured finance issuers
Private Trust and corporate service providers, family offices and private wealth structures

Start with a conversation

Thirty minutes on a call is usually enough for us to tell you where you stand and what it would cost to fix.

Contact Canopy
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