Financial services dominated the discussions yesterday at the sixth annual BVI Business Outlook conference at Scrub Island Resort, with panellists and more than 150 other attendees discussing challenges facing the industry and possible solutions.
After opening remarks from Premier Dr. Orlando Smith and Business BVI Managing Editor Russell Harrigan — who is also the majority owner of the Beacon — OIL Global’s deputy group managing director, Simon Filmer, took the podium.
Mr. Filmer gave a synopsis of the global market for company incorporations and compared it to the Virgin Islands market.
Overall, new company incorporations have been decreasing by about two percent per year over the last five years, he said.
The good news for offshore financial jurisdictions is that the decrease in new incorporations is being offset by the reactivation of previously inactive companies. If that trend continues, Mr. Filmer said, the overall number of incorporated companies should continue to increase until 2025.
However, he added, the rate of new incorporations has been decreasing in the VI far faster than the global average — to the tune of some 30 percent over the last five years.
Quarters two and three of 2015 were particularly rough for the territory, with Q2 seeing a six-year low in new incorporations and Q3 being the worst third quarter since at least 2003.
Mr. Filmer attributed that decrease to uncertainty in the VI industry.
The territory is undergoing the most radical changes to its regulatory regime in at least 10 years, he explained.
See the Jan. 14, 2016 edition for full coverage.
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