Incorporations toppled in the second quarter, suggesting that 2022 won’t reach the heights of 2021, according to the latest quarterly report from the Financial Services Commission.
Q2 2022 saw just 6,630 incorporations, giving financial services its worst quarter since Q4 of 2020, which itself was one of the worst years on record for incorporations.
The numbers dampened hopes of a continued climb from last year, when incorporations saw their best performance since 2018 as they recovered somewhat from a long-term downward trend.
The strong numbers continued in Q1 of this year, which saw 8,075 incorporations. But the Q2 numbers were down 17.85 percent from Q1 and almost a third from Q2 2021, which saw 9,114 incorporations.
Last year as a whole saw 36,178 incorporations, a sharp contrast over 2020. With just 22,362 new companies formed, 2020 hit at least a 21-year low, eclipsing the previous low of 26,150 in 2019.
In 2018, 37,415 new companies were incorporated.
If the second half of this year matches the first half, which saw 14,705 incorporations in total, 2022 would end with 29,410.
Total companies
Also in Q2 2022, the number of total active companies dropped to 370,150, down from 375,185 in the previous quarter.
Despite the drop, the numbers are still up from a 14-year low in 2020: Having lost 14,085 active companies between Q3 and Q4 of that year, the territory finished out 2020 with just 366,364 total active companies.
In 2019, the numbers hit the previous 13-year low of 387,344 after peaking at 481,002 in 2011.
Other services
Meanwhile, the number of new limited partnerships, which began in the territory in 2017, dropped slightly from the previous quarter, with 106 partnerships formed, a decrease of just six from Q1.
Cumulatively, 2,257 LPs have formed in the territory since 2017. Additionally, the total number of new applications to register a trademark in Q1 2022 decreased by 45 percent from the previous quarter, with just 61 applications filed. Q1 saw a major spike in trademark applications, with 111 filed.
Trademark applications have been falling for the past two years, but with 172 trademark applications filed already this year, 2022 could be shaping up to outpace the previous two years in applications.
Since the enactment of the Trade Marks Act in 2015, a total of 1,904 new applications to register a trademark have been filed, the FSC reported.
Six patents were re-registered in Q2, two less than the previous quarter but one more than the five registered in Q2 2021. Q2 also saw 75 patent renewals, more than any quarter at least since 2020.
The number of active mutual funds fell to 832 in Q2, the lowest number since Q1 of 2021. Even with the addition of the “private investment funds” category, which has only been included in the numbers since Q3 of 2020, overall active funds have fallen by eight percent. This is largely due to a decrease in active private mutual funds, which have fallen by 15 percent in the past two years.