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Funds
Are the stars aligning for Gibraltar’s investment funds sector?
By Jay Gomez, Director, and Javier E. Triay, Senior Associate, Triay Lawyers
has also conveniently been positive and has shown Gibraltar in great light and on many occasions as a leader and a beacon of hope: the success of the vaccination programme being a perfect example.
Why does this matter for financial services and specifically the funds sector? The answer is simple: post-Brexit our competitor jurisdictions have shifted from being EU fund domiciles to non-EU fund domiciles and it seems the time Gibraltar has spent in the news has also sparked interest from prospective clients in what Gibraltar can offer for financial services.
Gibraltar Funds & Investments Association (GFIA) The timing has been superb as since the result of the Brexit referendum our funds products have been carefully refined to make them as competitive and attractive to prospective clients as they possibly can be. They are now at least on par with our non-EU competitor jurisdictions and the work continues in partnership between the industry, driven by the Gibraltar Funds & Investments Association (GFIA) the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) and Minister Isola and his team at the Gibraltar Finance Centre.
The work now centres primarily on creating a dual regime for investment funds and managers that are now not able to take advantage of the benefits of the passporting permissions under EU Directives. The aim being to give investment funds and their managers the ability to opt-out of those regimes: the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) being a perfect example.
This ongoing work shines a light on the competitiveness of Gibraltar’s experienced investor fund and private fund regimes and the advantage of a jurisdiction where industry and policymakers work side-by-side in the best interests of the jurisdiction.
The build-up to Brexit was not easy for anyone living and breathing financial services in Gibraltar. Although we took comfort in the ongoing access to our primary market, the United Kingdom, negativity and pessimism reigned for what looked like an uncertain future.
As a result, Gibraltar featured heavily in the international media. The question primarily being asked centred around the impact on day-to-day lives and primarily the question of fluidity at the frontier with Spain. The loss of access to the EU market was largely suffered in silence.
During 2020, Gibraltar continued to feature in the international media when along came COVID-19 and the spotlight was then on the efficiency of Gibraltar’s vaccination programme, and then the New Years Eve
‘In-Principle’ Agreement with Spain. Then followed the positive impact of the vaccination programme on limiting community transmission of the virus and the hotly contested abortion referendum. For the past 12-24 months Gibraltar has been plastered all over the international media. This looks set to continue as the negotiations ramp up in respect of our future relationship with the EU.
Self-criticism is engrained in all Gibraltarians and for years we have believed that our ability to market ourselves as a jurisdiction has not been as successful as that of our main competitors. Perhaps our size has something to do with that?
Whilst some may have not realised, the past 12-24 months has created more publicity for Gibraltar than any of us could have ever hoped for or dreamed of. Overall, that publicity
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26 Gibraltar International
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