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Jersey Finance have brushed off a new league table that places Jersey below Glasgow and Almaty in Kazakhstan as a finance centre, saying it’s down to shifting response rates and misses out recent flows of new business to the Island.
Their comments come in response to the Global Financial Centres Index, the latest edition of which ranked Jersey as 62nd out of 83 finance centres around the world, 21 spots down from its position six months ago.
The survey also removed the Island from its spot as the top-ranked offshore centre, which it has held for six years.
Richard Corrigan, the deputy CEO of promotional body Jersey Finance said the latest GFCI survey showed that more responses were coming from North America and Asia – markets that tended not to use Jersey as much.
He added that Western Europe and all offshore centres had taken a hit in the most recent survey.
Mr Corrigan said: “The fact is we continue to see strong flows of new business through Jersey, with funds values having recently broken through the £200bn mark, stable bank levels, more Jersey companies being listed on global exchanges than ever before, and firms forecasting increases in profits and employment opportunities for local people.
“We also have higher standards of regulatory oversight and reporting than many onshore countries, which again has not been reflected in our ranking this time.”
The GFCI measures finance centres on five criteria: business environment, financial sector development, infrastructure, human capital and a reputational and general factor.
The survey results followed the economic GVA figures released last week that showed that while the finance industry still accounted for more than two-fifths of Jersey’s economy, it had shrunk by 3% in 2013. The figures showed that the size of the finance sector had contracted by a third since 2008.
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