Gaetan Bucher, a Swiss-Dominican private banker developing the project, is in no doubt about what he is taking on. “Talk about taking on a challenge,” he says. He plans to house a complex built at a cost of more than $600m on a 17 sq km greenfield site at Guayacanes on the Caribbean coast. The site is midway between Santo Domingo and the Casa De Campo resort and will include office space, a conference centre, independent power generators and a private landing strip.

He proposes to base the project around a central settlement and clearing house facility for Latin American bond trades, an area that has boomed in recent years following the restoration of stability in Mexico, Brazil and the rest of the region. Trades in Latin American debt instruments amounted to $2,940bn in 2004. The clearing facility, to be called Laifex, would be the hub of a broader financial services centre to be known as the Independent Financial Centre of the Americas.

Eventually an array of separate financial services would develop at the site, including private banks.

While competition for clearing and settlement comes from the over-the-counter market between banks, a private banking centre would compete with neighbouring Caribbean centres such as the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands that have built up strength in this area over the past 25 years.
However, Mr Bucher aims to steal a march on rivals by capitalising on recent international concern about regulation of offshore financial centres. The Dominican centre’s regulatory framework is being tailored directly to guidelines laid down recently by the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body formed to combat money laundering. The centre’s regulatory arrangements – outline proposals for which are being drawn up by Patton Boggs, a Washington law firm, and Deloitte Consulting in London – would be separate from those that already apply to the Domincan Republic’s domestic financial system.

An internationally recognised regulatory authority run by international experts will operate “with complete independence from political and commercial influences and the centre itself”, he says. Enforcement – an acknowledged weakness in the Dominican national framework – will also be independent. And state-of-the-art systems and technology should also allow for tight regulation. “Instead of an auditor coming in once a year you’ll have constant live and real-time monitoring of transactions,” Mr Bucher says.

Reinforcing this thrust is an effort to brand the Dominican Republic as a more interesting place to live than smaller neighbouring Caribbean islands, which will, he hopes, attract bankers.

And he is confident he has cross-party political backing for the project, an important claim when President Leonel Fernández and his party are a minority in both houses of congress. Former President Hipólito Mejía, who still has big influence among opposition deputies, is a firm supporter of the project.