It’s significant, for instance, that 50% of business attracted to Jersey now comes from outside Europe, reflecting Jersey’s evolution as a centre for facilitating global financial flows.This has positive ramifications for the UK, with Jersey now helping to facilitate some £0.5 trillion of good quality foreign investment into the UK each year – that’s around 5% of the UK’s total foreign investment stock, investment that goes into infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and office developments that everyone inthe UK benefits from. It’s activity that adds £14 billion to theUK economy and supports in the region of 250,000 jobs.
Equally, Jersey is playing a key role in putting UK investor capital to work overseas. Jersey’s strong relationships within Europe,for instance, enables it to facilitate high-quality inward investment into the EU each year.
Jersey attracts Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) totalling around US$66 billion each year from sources including the UK, Ireland, India, France and South Africa, and distributes outbound FDI to the tune of around US$76 billion to both developed and emerging markets around the world.
Crucially, Jersey can do all this by offering one of the best regulated and most highly-skilled financial services environments in the world. Indeed, the efforts Jersey has put into establishing itself as a premium international finance centre means that it acts as a quality filter in mediating financial flows into and out of the UK.
Jersey is absolutely aligned, for instance, with the UK’s objective to clamp down on financial crime and has robust measures in place to ensure high levels of oversight.
Jersey scores higher than most when benchmarked against global standards – it achieved one of the highest scores globally when evaluated by MONEYVAL and is one of just 14 countries worldwide to be deemed fully compliant by the OECD in terms of tax compliance after two peer reviews.
With regard to transparency, Jersey is party to a series of international agreements that ensure information on those investing through the Island gets shared with their home tax authority. This covers the UK, USA, all EU Member States and over 70 other countries.
The clear evidence is that the forward-thinking approach of Jersey’s finance industry, its commitment to innovation and the highest levels of oversight and its belief in being a positive force in facilitating international investment means that Jersey is ready to work with the UK as it carves out a successful global future.
Read more from the global Britain report
