Survey says

Financial services practitioners had the first chance yesterday at a BVI Finance breakfast forum to see the results of an industry survey administered to them last year by the Financial Services Implementation Unit.

The survey, which was designed to gauge practitioners’ thoughts on issues surrounding the industry so that government can tailor its policies accordingly, received responses from 46 firms throughout the territory, according to Financial Services Implementation Unit Data Analyst Aida Biberic.

Those respondents weighed in on topics such as the health of the industry in the Virgin Islands; emerging markets; and what steps government can take to boost the sector.

According to Ms. Biberic, practitioners have a largely positive outlook on the future of VI financial services, expecting the number of industry jobs to increase by about 10 percent from 2015 to 2017.

However, she cautioned that the survey was administered in last December, before the territory was subjected to the wave of negative publicity generated by the Panama Papers — some 11.5 million leaked documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca allegedly connecting the territory to money laundering and other illegal activities.

In terms of emerging markets, nearly 40 percent of the respondents think that Asia will be the fastest growing market over the “next couple of years,” Ms. Biberic said.

Latin America was second, with about 20 percent of respondents stating that they think it will be the fastest growing market in the coming years.

See the June 16, 2016 edition for full coverage.