Im told by the more opulent inhabitants that although foreign income is not an issue here, the big offshore sums are moving to hong kong. Apparently the chinese are not at all concerned or impressed by the US or EU attempts to obtain information about their citizens holdings there. Do you think this likely?

Theres a story about a certain billionaire who lives here part of the year flying in with several suitcases of cash last month and driving straight to HSBC.

Not surprised about HSBC - it has a terrible reputation these days. And, yes, Hong Kong is lagging behind in the public-relations game too. When I first came to Cayman in 1978, within a week I was faced with a client who turned up with a suitcase with (he said) $30,000 inside and asked me to put it in his bank account. I said no I wouldn't do it, but he could deposit it himself if the bank would accept it. (I didn't know what the rules were, so early in my tenure.) I phoned Barclays Bank for him and they said, OK, send him down. And that's what happened. I shunted him off to another corporate-management company, and never had to face the problem again. Eight years earlier I had been in Nassau (Bahamas) where handling large sums of cash were a big no-no, at least in the company I was working for - one of the shareholders of which was HSBC!