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Brexit
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in all areas of passporting, such as banking, investment services, eMoney and insurance, including Lloyds of London,” he assured.
The focus of the meeting was on maximising practical outcomes from what Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has called “a special relationship” with the UK and exploring the long- term new business potential.
As Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) head of policy, Peter Taylor, noted: “We have close contact with UK regulators – the PRA, the FCA; it’s a very close relationship. While the UK is facing far more uncertainty, the impact on Gibraltar is much less, whichever way the votes go, because we stick with the UK; also if the UK has a transitional agreement, so too do we. All indicators are that there is continuing strong interest in Gibraltar as a jurisdiction for financial services, so from that point of view the future looks very good.”
A passporting regime was not relevant for the world-leading Gibraltar online gaming companies, Minister Isola pointed out, but assurances had been given that local firms would continue to be recognised post-Brexit under the UK Gaming Act. “We are the only jurisdiction in the world outside of the UK that has this guarantee”, he said and the Gibraltar gambling commission had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with its UK counterpart to bring “much closer co-operation in terms of policy - a significant result”.
However, Gibraltarian Elicia Bravo Garcia,
who returned to the jurisdiction from the UK in 2016 as chief strategy officer for Lottoland in part to deal with regulatory matters, especially around Brexit, reflected: “All operators with Gibraltar licenses have had to gain separate UK licenses to reach UK residents and therefore have a direct relationship with the UK Gaming Regulator”.
Better placed
Nevertheless, “we welcome the increased relationship between the two regulators, because I think there is a lot we can learn on both sides.” She considered the Gibraltar regulator, “given the size of this jurisdiction, to be “better placed than the UK regulator to having on-going dialogue with market participants.”
The gaming sector also planned for a hard Brexit and Gibraltar was in a better position for the future, Garcia concluded; most operators had contingency plans. Several EU jurisdictions already required separate licenses – Spain, France, UK and Ireland, were examples. “So although it’s not an easy process, it’s not an excessively arduous process either”, she
confirmed. Concern surfaced over the day-to-day
running of gaming businesses; fluidity at the border with Spain could impact on operations. “It’s probably the most important factor for gaming operators to have assurance there - it is far more important than passporting rights”, Garcia observed.
“Without a doubt one of the advantages of Gibraltar is that it’s very agile and being a smaller jurisdiction, events are more manageable,” she determined. Gibraltar was focused on a few key industries and “people here are better prepared.”
Cawdery declared: “I still worry about the border – a lot comes in that way. We will not have dissimilar problems to those of UK with Dover and Calais. If there were closure of our border [with Spain] we would have issues with produce and people going backwards and forwards”, he reasoned.
Border optimism [More than 12,000 people cross the frontier daily for work, around half being Spanish: two thirds of the
3,500 Gibraltar gaming employees live in Spain.] “There’s an argument that we have been
here 40 years ago with the border not open [under Spain’s General Franco], Cawdery declared, “but obviously, we have a much greater economy now and a more diverse range of activities, so it’s very different this time.”
It was impossible to know whether the border would become more difficult, Garcia observed, “Unlike France, which may not have the same interest in maintaining fluidity [with UK], here with Spain there is a case for a more positive view, so I am relatively optimistic, albeit it remains the greatest concern from the gambling sector perspective,” she pronounced.
Asked by everyone how Brexit will affect Gibraltar, Garcia worried: “Even if it seems that it will not have a huge impact on us, that’s not the way people from outside of Gibraltar or Europe see it and that tarnishes our reputation.”
Julian Camble of STM Fidecs, a pensions administrator, pointed out that he, like other cross border workers had experienced “a pay cut as a result of currency changes”, and questioned what would happen if Britain
Assisting growth Asked by Jon Tricker, managing director of KPMG Gibraltar, whether the perceived benefits of freedom of services in the UK was good businesses, Shaun Cawdery, a Sands Insurance Group, which and life assurance into the UK and Eastern Europe, accepted his industry sector had assurances that access would continue after 2020 - [the proposed end of a transitional period when a mechanism to ensure continued alignment of regulatory outcomes will be agreed]. Whileitremained“oneofthe uncertainties, in a very uncertain world, it is one of the understandings that will significantly assist growth of the industry here”, he acknowledged.
However, Cawdery said a Bank of England report suggesting “the UK is ready for a hard Brexit, but the EU side is not”, put “a lot of pressure on those licensees facing Europe”!
The first steps had been taken by a joint UK / Gibraltar commission to review insurance supervision, Minister Isola revealed, given that the sector was Gibraltar’s most significant cross border activity, with total gross written premiums of some £4.5bn. That translated into a 23% market share of UK motor-related business, he said.
for local director of Red provides general
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