Editorial Note: Janyccee Parchment, quoted in this report as a notary public, is Vice President of People and Operations at IRACE. IRACE and The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) are companies founded by Don Seymour. This report was prepared under TCJ's editorial standards, independently of the quoted individual's connection to the founder.

A Bill gazetted on 18 August 2026 would limit new appointments as notary public to Caymanians, bar anyone aged 80 or over, and require notaries who are not attorneys to carry professional indemnity insurance.

The insurance clause has divided practitioners. Janyccee Parchment, a notary public and Vice President of People and Operations at IRACE, a company in the same ownership group as TCJ, told TCJ that the requirement would protect the public. Duane Jeffries, a notary public and senior manager for private capital services at the fund and corporate services firm JTC Group, told TCJ that it was "a bit out of a lot people's reach".

The Notaries Public (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was published as Supplement No. 2 to Legislation Gazette No. 40 and is listed on the Parliament website as introduced. It is due to be presented for reading and debate when the House next sits on 30 September 2026, the first sitting of the second meeting of the 2026 to 2027 parliamentary session. Its sponsor is the Portfolio of Legal Affairs, which is headed by the Attorney General, Samuel Bulgin. Notaries authenticate and certify documents, including documents that are relied on outside Cayman, so the rules governing who may be appointed reach into the Islands' financial and legal sectors.

What the Bill would change

The Bill amends the Notaries Public Act (2023 Revision). Under clauses 4 and 5, only a Caymanian would be eligible for appointment, and the existing route for permanent residents would be deleted. A person who has reached 80 could not be appointed or re-appointed.

The experience required before appointment would rise. For a person in a management position in a company or public office it would go from three years to six; for an attorney-at-law, and for a certified public or chartered accountant, from three years to five. A non-attorney applicant would have to be a fit and proper person with no conviction punishable by imprisonment, including none that has been spent or expunged under the Criminal Records (Spent Convictions) Act (2018 Revision).

Clause 6 makes a training programme compulsory for non-attorney notaries, to be designed and evaluated by the Truman Bodden Law School or another body authorised by the Attorney General. Attorneys are exempt, and the exemption that the current Act gives to other professional groups is removed. Under clause 13, a non-attorney notary already in office would have six months from the commencement of the training regulations to complete the programme, and the Attorney General would accept no new non-attorney applications between the Act's commencement and the commencement of those regulations.

New section 10A would require a non-attorney notary who does not already hold professional indemnity insurance related to their profession to "obtain and maintain professional indemnity insurance with coverage and conditions as prescribed by the Cabinet". The Bill does not state the level of cover or its cost; both would be set by the Cabinet after the Act is passed, and the Bill gives no timetable for that.

A new confidentiality section would make it an offence for a notary or former notary to knowingly disclose non-public information about a person obtained under the Act, punishable on summary conviction by a fine of CI$5,000, 12 months' imprisonment, or both. The penalty for an appointment left lapsed for more than six months would rise from CI$250 to CI$750. Regulations made under the Act could create offences carrying a fine of CI$10,000, two years' imprisonment, or both. Under clause 1(2), the Act would come into force on a date appointed by Cabinet Order, and different provisions could be brought into force on different days.

The Government's reasons

The Memorandum of Objects and Reasons attached to the Bill says notaries in Cayman "generally fall into two categories", one handling the witnessing of signatures and certification of documents and the other undertaking "more complex domestic and international matters that require extensive knowledge of private international law". It says: "This disparity has occasionally resulted in errors in the performance of notarial duties."

The Memorandum also says "the relatively high per capita number of notaries public in the Islands, coupled with the rapid annual appointment of new notaries public compared to neighbouring jurisdictions, has raised concerns", and that gaps in expertise "could have negative implications for compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations 22 and 23", which impose customer due diligence, record-keeping and reporting obligations on certain professions, including notaries.

The Memorandum does not give the number of notaries, the rate of appointments, or the jurisdictions compared. The register of notaries is kept by the Clerk of the Court; the Judicial Administration's website publishes no list and directs enquiries about the register to the Clerk by email. The Cabinet's post-meeting summary for 12 March 2026 records the approval of ten appointments as notaries public at that single meeting.

When the Portfolio of Legal Affairs opened a consultation with notaries on 11 May 2026, its release said the amendments were intended to "modernise the regulatory framework, to bring it in line with international standards", and listed "inadequate record-keeping" among the deficiencies to be addressed. The Bill as gazetted contains no clause on record-keeping. In the same release the Attorney General said: "Notaries, trusted by the public to handle legal and financial documents, including for cross border transactions are a key part of our regulatory regime." The release said the survey's closing date would be sent to notaries by email and that a 28-day public consultation would follow before the Bill went to Parliament. Neither the Bill nor its Memorandum states whether that public consultation was held or what it found.

Practitioners divided on insurance

Parchment, whose employer IRACE shares an owner with TCJ, said the Bill would raise standards in a profession whose work travels. "I believe there is value in strengthening the standards and consistency of the notarial profession in Cayman," she told TCJ. Documents executed or certified in Cayman may later be relied on overseas, she said, which made accuracy, training and professional standards important. Cayman's financial, corporate and legal sectors meant notarial services touched cross-border transactions, corporate matters, banking, immigration and other international dealings, she said.

She supported the split between attorney and non-attorney notaries and the training requirement. "I particularly support the proposed distinction between attorney and non-attorney notaries and the introduction of mandatory training for non-attorney notaries," she said. The insurance requirement would give the public an additional safeguard when relying on a notary's work, she said, and the confidentiality provisions would set clearer expectations for handling sensitive personal, commercial and corporate information. "I also welcome the proposed confidentiality provisions," she said.

Parchment said the timing was appropriate given growth in Cayman's population, financial services industry and international business community, but that implementation would matter: the new requirements should not disadvantage experienced and competent practitioners already in office, and should be introduced fairly.

Jeffries, who said he was speaking as a notary and not for JTC Group, said the objection among the practitioners he had spoken to was narrow. "In terms of most of the requirements in the Bill, we thought were good but the inclusion of indemnity of insurance for a non-lawyer we thought was a bit out of a lot people's reach," he told TCJ. "For the most part in my discussions, we have a shared concern of the inclusion of a requirement for indemnity of insurance which we think is a big over the top. That's where most of us disagree with the Bill," he said. He did not say how many notaries he had consulted. Neither practitioner addressed the Caymanian-only eligibility rule or the age cap in their comments to TCJ.

In England and Wales, the Faculty Office, which regulates notaries, issues a practising certificate only where the application is accompanied by a current certificate of insurance against civil liability. Its published requirements set the minimum professional indemnity cover at £1,000,000 and require fidelity insurance in addition. That requirement applies to every notary there; the Cayman Bill would apply only to notaries who are not attorneys and who do not already hold cover through their profession.

What happens next

Parliament sits on 30 September 2026. If the Bill is passed in its current form, non-attorney notaries would face two deadlines set by regulations that do not yet exist: no new non-attorney appointments could be made until the training regulations commence, and every non-attorney notary already appointed would have six months from that date to complete the programme or fall out of compliance. The Bill does not say when Cabinet intends to make those regulations. The Portfolio of Legal Affairs' stated position is that set out in the Memorandum and in its 11 May 2026 release.