By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Business Desk

Credit Suisse has just about made good on an earlier pledge to consolidate all of its Bahamian divisions, nearing the end of the liquidation of a subsidiary and the move to place all of its duties within its branch operation.

"It's no longer needed," said the company's liquidating agent Michael Paton of Lennox Paton, referring to the dissolving of the wealth management division and investment subsidiary here in The Bahamas. "All of the divisions are opened at the branch now, nothing has changed."

The international investment house retains its presence in this offshore market even as it explores the possibility of establishing an even bigger one in Trinidad's growing offshore. That competing center is now in talks with several of the world's largest banks in an effort to win their commitment to the jurisdiction. It isn't immediately clear if that will have a minimizing effect on their presence here in this private wealth management mecca.

CS's subsidiary liquidation should come through by the end of the year, the company is expected to hold a general meeting at month's end to lay the company's final accounts before its members.

The subsidiary's liquidation follows an apparent spike in the number of liquidations over the past several years, analysts earlier suggesting it is proof of the growing sophistication of this financial sector.

"It's not an indication that the economy has gone south," Lynden Maycock, financial manager for H&J Corporate Service, one of the country's top liquidation specialist told Guardian Business last year. "Clients now know the importance of dissolving a company in an orderly and proper fashion."

He was one of many in the field who saw the number of liquidations for International Business Companies (IBCs) and offshore banks Companies Act companies climb during 2006.

It was a jump not seen since the dark days following the overhaul of Bahamian banking laws, starting in 2000. Then it was primarily offshore banks vacating the jurisdiction or "nameplate"  IBCs that had no real physical presence in The Bahamas.

That collective exodus is not the case this time around, said Maycock. Rather, the increase is an indication that the market is maturing. 

"Increasingly IBCs are being encouraged to go into liquidation when winding down operations instead of being struck off by the Registrar General," he said, arguing the move as a way to save the back dues the regulator would charge before allowing the operation to restart.