by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

Jersey and Guernsey have moved higher in the latest Global Financial Centres Index, published biannually by the Z/Yen Group.

In the rankings, Jersey advances into the top twenty global financial centres, and retains its top spot as the highest rated offshore jurisdiction. Guernsey progressed in the rankings to 28th place, ahead of the Isle of Man (40th), the Cayman Islands (44th), the British Virgin Islands (45th) and Bermuda (46th).

In the rankings for industry sectors, Jersey remains the only offshore jurisdiction to be included and, despite stiff competition from major city locations, is ranked tenth among private banking and wealth management centres, just behind Vancouver and Frankfurt.

London remains in first place in the rankings, followed by New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Zurich.

Welcoming Jersey’s placement, Geoff Cook, the Chief Executive of Jersey Finance, the promotional agency for the island’s financial services industry internationally, said: “It is encouraging that Jersey continues to maintain its high ranking, ahead not only of the main offshore competitors, but also above EU jurisdictions which operate financial centres such as Luxembourg and Dublin. In the last seven consecutive Indexes, Jersey has been the highest rated offshore jurisdiction and in the last three we have risen three places in the Index from 23 to 20, an indication that in terms of our competitiveness and how we are perceived by others in the marketplace, Jersey is consistently performing well.”

Fiona Le Poidevin, Chief Executive of Guernsey Finance – the island’s equivalent agency, said: “It is encouraging to see us move up the rankings and in particular that the report specifically highlights that we are one of the two leading offshore centres.”

Le Poidevin added: “In line with the other offshore centres, we fell in the rankings during the last few years, which was partly as a result of the financial crisis and its effects but also due to the number of centres, particularly from the emerging markets, being taken into consideration within the reports. Either way, it is very pleasing to see that we have stabilised the situation and it now appears that we have turned the corner and once again, we’re heading in the right direction. This reflects the trends within the industry where – despite variations between individual sectors – the overall picture is one of stability with signs of modest growth.”

The latest report, GFCI 12, says that generally, offshore centres suffered significant reputational damage during and in the wake of the financial crisis but now they are starting to make up the lost ground.

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