‘White listing’ puts Guernsey in pole position in China

Guernsey’s position on the OECD ‘white list’ gives it an edge over competitors in the race for financial services business in China, according to Peter Niven, chief executive of Guernsey Finance. A delegation from Guernsey spent the last week of April meeting senior Chinese government and regulatory officials as well as fiduciary and funds business introducers such as lawyers and accountants in both Beijing and Shanghai. This was the island’s third major delegation to Shanghai – where it has a permanent office. The OECD ‘white list’ was published at the end of the G20 summit in London. Mr Niven explained that Chinese officials were particularly interested in how Guernsey’s OECD status compared with the ‘grey listing’ of the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands – two jurisdictions which are widely used in China for company formation. Mr Niven believed that Guensey’s ‘white list’ status gave the island’s offering an extra edge and that it was ‘something’ that Guernsey would maximise going forward in order to attract business that might have otherwise gone to competitors from the Caribbean. Guernsey’s ‘white listing’ comes after the island was ranked 12th in the latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) published in March this year.