Select a region
As an international finance centre, Luxembourg is struggling under the weight of its own success, becoming an ever less popular place to distribute funds through.
And with that decline comes new opportunities for Guernsey, according to local finance leaders.
They were speaking at the Guernsey Finance Industry Update for 2019 alongside Dominic Wheatley, Guernsey Finance's Chief Executive. He said that Luxembourg's recent struggles were no secret, and something that the island needed to get on the back of and benefit from.
"It is no secret that Luxembourg is struggling with the weight of its own success, so we need to be ready to take advantage of that," he said.
"We are getting that feedback [about Luxembourg] from industry, in New York and London. There is no doubt that there is a lot of advisors don't really want to go to Luxembourg but get drawn in. We need to to remind them that this is still a reasonable and top quality jurisdiction for the distribution of funds into the EU."
Guernsey Finance Chief Executive Dominic Wheatley speaking at the update.
One of the general themes of this year's industry update was how Guernsey Finance had successfully been getting the message out about the the island. Attendees heard about their online success and also their ever-increasing network of representatives around the world.
The focus on taking business from Luxembourg is just part of that wider initiative to ensure as many people as possible are informed about Guernsey's offerings.
"It is really important that we all relay the island's position to the world. It needs to be a consistent message."
Among other achievements of 2019, Mr Wheatley also spoke about how the island was "winning the battle" when it came to shedding the misnomer of a tax haven: "amongst the most informed audiences we are starting to win the argument about the perception of us in terms of our position offshore and our indeed position historically as a tax haven. Those are important things to do".
Pictured top: File image of Luxembourg.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.