An overview of Gibraltar as an emerging and developing hedge fund jurisidiction, including an overview of Gibraltar's progress, an exclusive interview with Chief Minister Peter Caruana, fund administration, legal services, audit and accounting plus comments from leading personalities in the jurisdiction and key facts and figures.

Gibraltar (PDF) December 2009

Overview
Gibraltar’s tactics have been to pursue slow, steady growth, taking time to build relationships with new partners. The proliferation of hedge funds and the expected continued growth of this sector of financial services could help give Gibraltar a much-needed boost in its efforts to become a mainstream EU hedge fund domicile.

Chief Minister
Chief Minister Peter Caruana believes in being open and supportive of business without sacrificing oversight and adequate regulation. He believes hedge funds are needed and help make capital markets more efficient – something he believes needs to be recognised.

Fund administration
Gibraltar has a number of small, local companies occupying specific niches in fund administration. It is keen to attract some of the big-name companies to the territory, hoping that will drive more business. Until then, however, the industry continues to expand, benefiting from a growing number of Gibraltar-domiciled funds.

Legal services
The legal services community in Gibraltar is looking forward to opportunities offered by legislation coming out of the EU as well as what it believes will be a flight to quality European jurisdictions in 2010. One of the latest hot topics doing the rounds is Islamic finance as the jurisdiction explores the possibilities of Shariah compliant hedge funds.

Audit and accounting
As more investors look for safe, well-regulated jurisdictions, Gibraltar appears an attractive alternative within the EU. For the accounting and auditing practices based in the territory, the growth in the experienced investor fund vehicle is shifting work away from more traditional domiciles.

What they say
Service providers, fund administrators and legal firms explain why they think Gibraltar is increasingly becoming a jurisdiction of choice.

Gibraltar at a glance
Key facts, figures and information about Gibraltar.