Gibraltar is located at the crossroads of Europe and Africa and is a member of the European Union. With a developed financial and commercial infrastructure, Gibraltar provides a high standard of European regulation.
As a business location, it provides a high level of professional service at a relatively low cost. Gibraltar has a common law framework, a high quality workforce, and a range of UK-trained professionals. It is renowned as one of the best-regulated finance centres in the world, and as such, has been held out as a benchmark jurisdiction on a number of occasions.
Through Gibraltar’s introduction of Experienced Investor Funds in 2005 and the general revision of its fund regime it has placed itself as a serious alternative fund jurisdiction. The significant global expansion in funds has put considerable pressure on established fund centres such as Dublin, Luxembourg and the Caribbean. These pressures have given rise to delays in fund establishment and greater selectivity by fund administrators creating a healthy overspill to other jurisdictions which had previously been unexploited.
Gibraltar has transposed all relevant EU banking, insurance and investment services directives such that its financial services sector is firmly within the integrated structured financial services system contemplated by the EU. ‘Passporting’ of banking and insurance services has been in place in Gibraltar for some years and financial services ‘passporting’ was brought into effect in July 2003. This allows financial services firms and certain funds to offer their services and products throughout Europe using their Gibraltar license.
By way of background, the Gibraltar Government established a Finance Centre in 1997 to give an additional boost to financial services as a key sector within the Gibraltar economy. The Finance Centre is responsible for the promotion of financial services, input into strategic planning including various international initiatives and liaison with both the private sector and the regulator. A Deposit Guarantee Scheme came into effect in 1999 and an Investor Compensation Scheme followed in 2003. As part of the European Union, Gibraltar implements all relevant EU directives, and the Financial Services Commission, established in 1989 as an independent statutory body, goes further by matching UK standards in financial regulation and supervision.