For decades, Jersey has adopted an outward looking approach that has sought to diversify its global reach, cooperate with overseas markets and build relationships with financial intermediaries around the world.
Over the past year, this approach has come the fore, with concerns around persistent geopolitical instability moving to the top of the agenda amongst investors, whilst the global regulatory and tax landscape has become increasingly complex. Dubbed a ‘polycrisis’, these factors have come together to make it critical for Jersey to focus its messaging acutely on the stable environment it offers.
That has meant balancing our focus as a jurisdiction on nurturing our traditional, core markets – the UK in particular – whilst also at the same time continuing to innovate and deliver cutting-edge solutions tailored to the needs of diverse global markets, with an eye on maintaining Jersey’s competitiveness.
It is a strategy that has been underpinned through a symbiotic approach, with the industry working closely with the Government of Jersey, the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) and bodies such as Digital Jersey to continue to build relationships in key markets and build our global reach.
Diverse Markets
The strength of our global capabilities as a jurisdiction has emerged over recent years to become a differentiator for Jersey as an IFC and it is a strength that has asserted itself over the last 12 months in particular.
The fact that Jersey intermediates some £1.4 trillion of capital each year, supporting £170 billion of global economic output and supporting more than five million jobs worldwide (Global Value Chains), is impressive, providing evidence of Jersey’s overall international reach – but the underlying data paints a picture too of a jurisdiction that is quite clearly focussed on strategically growing its reach into diverse markets.
Unsurprisingly, the UK remains the most significant destination of capital for Jersey’s finance industry, with the sector supporting an annual average of £62 billion of UK GDP. That is then followed by Asia and the Middle East, Europe and North America.
It is the fruit of a deliberate strategy of diversification − supported by Jersey Finance’s on-the-ground overseas market development team in Dubai, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, New York, Shanghai and Singapore − to both consolidate and nurture Jersey’s well-established geographical markets, whilst also building visibility in growth regions, identifying new opportunities in the funds, private client, banking and capital markets sectors but also in emerging areas such as virtual assets and sustainable finance.
Evolving Connections
The cross-border landscape that Jersey’s IFC operates in continues to be defined by relentless change – and it is critical that Jersey’s approach to building overseas relationships continues to evolve in line with that.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the growing ties between Jersey and the US market. This year marks five years since Jersey Finance established its office in New York, when the singular message to the market was that Jersey was a gateway to Europe for US fund managers.
Since then, the number of US-originated fund structures in Jersey has grown more than 60% while the value of US fund assets under management serviced in Jersey has risen by more than a fifth, according to Monterey. It has been a big success and in more recent years we have taken that message to new cities such as Miami, San Francisco and Chicago.
Significantly, this year marks the adoption of Jersey Finance’s new four-year plan – and one of the core parts of that is to build on the strong US platform we have created and explore bringing our capability to the US private client market too. This represents a major opportunity in a rapidly growing market that values precisely the sort of predictability and certainty Jersey provides.
Meanwhile, the Middle East remains a critically important and well-established market for Jersey. At a time when the region continues to balance ambitious growth on the one hand with geopolitical instability on the other, Jersey’s message of certainty is resonating clearly. In addition, the impressive Islamic finance expertise Jersey can boast, alongside its focus on high service quality levels, is also hugely attractive amongst families of wealth in the region.
An example of how Jersey Finance is embedding its visibility within the fabric of the Middle East landscape is reflected in the series of events we have held over the past year in the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, focussing on women in leadership and wealth, whilst our annual private wealth conference in Dubai is now considered a major regional event, underlining just how highly Jersey is held in this market.
Our strategy in the ASEAN region is also evolving at pace, having established a presence in Singapore only two years ago, adding to our existing and long-standing relationships within mainland China and Hong Kong.
It has proven to be a move that has mutual benefits for both Jersey and Singapore − both centres that pride themselves on delivering excellent client service − helping to channel high quality flows of both private client and, increasingly, institutional capital between Europe and the South-East Asia region.
In particular, we are seeing strong growth potential in the family office space across Singapore and Malaysia, supporting globally-minded private clients, whilst we are also witnessing Asian fund managers looking to tap into Jersey’s alternative fund expertise to access European investor capital and there is also a pipeline of activity in the exciting virtual assets space.
Within Africa, meanwhile, we are continuing to take a focussed approach, building our connectivity with gatekeepers in South Africa, where we are seeing strong take up of Jersey’s funds and private wealth expertise, whilst also targeting high value, good quality private client work in Kenya.
A Globally Focused Infrastructure
In a rapidly evolving and complex world, it is critical that Jersey continues to work hard to provide a truly globally focussed infrastructure – a proposition that can position Jersey as the easiest jurisdiction to transact with internationally, that offers superior client service, genuine stability, is well connected and is clearly focussed on high quality business.
These are the values that are common across all the markets Jersey touches.
Jesey’s digital infrastructure – including the fastest broadband connectivity in the world – is a major selling point, whilst the impressive experience and expertise of our workforce and the high quality regulatory and legislative framework Jersey offers, come together to create an attractive proposition for international investors.
The positive outcome of this year’s MONEYVAL assessment will play no small part in continuing to drive investor confidence in Jersey too.
However, in a highly competitive IFC landscape, standing still is not an option and as a progressive jurisdiction we are committed to continuing to build our international connectivity, working with authorities around the world and delivering the innovative solutions global investors need.
Last year, the Jersey Finance team held meetings with almost 3,000 gatekeepers around the world and hosted or participated in almost 150 events globally, all aimed at explaining what Jersey has to offer.
It is a reflection of just how seriously Jersey takes it commitment to global cooperation, of the importance it places on cross-border connectivity as a differentiator and of its responsibilities as a jurisdiction that can play a significant role in wealth creation and driving economic growth in diverse international markets.
