THE island must not lose its competitive edge in the captive insurance arena, the chief executive of GuernseyFinance has warned.
Peter Niven (pictured) said comments coming out of both Jersey and the Isle of Man recently showed just how much the two rival jurisdictions wanted some of the business Guernsey had attracted by being number one for captive insurance in Europe.
Mr Niven was responding after Jersey Senator Alan Maclean, a member of the island’s Economic Development Department, said part of a £2.5m. funding boost to its finance industry would be spent encouraging inward investment, especially new captive insurance business.
Isle of Man treasury minister Alan Bell also made reference to how important his island’s growing captive insurance sector was to its diversification in his recent Budget speech.
Mr Niven said neither comments should be ignored by the powers that be.
‘They have yet again said they are targeting captive insurance.
Jersey doesn’t have very much captive insurance business at the moment, and therefore I believe we have to be very careful as we move forward in both the tax arena and the regulation arena that we maintain our pre-eminence in captive insurance.
‘It really is the jewel in the crown of our finance industry. It’s the only real number one we have and I know the captive insurance managers fiercely guard that.
‘But what these comments show is that two competitive jurisdictions very nearby really want that business from us, so we have got to be terribly vigilant and make sure that we don’t lose it by default.’
Jersey also announced last week that part of its States’ financial boost would probably result in a third overseas office for Jersey Finance.
The latest office, most likely in India, would be in addition to one in London and one in Hong Kong.
Mr Niven said it had been on the cards for a while, but dismissed the suggestion that it meant Jersey was stealing a march in India, where GuernseyFinance also has plans to do something.
‘It follows their strategy of opening offices worldwide, which is not our strategy.
‘We are just going into India for the first time this April. We’re going to see how the land lies there before doing anything else.
‘Our strategy is to consolidate what we are doing in China where we have a representative and to start the process of looking at India.
Once we have been there we can take stock and consider how best we can get into that market.
That might be a representative, but it’s far too early to know at this stage.’
Article posted on 3rd March, 2010 - 2.30pm
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