The LOFSA chairman and Bank Negara governor, was presenting the association's annual report for 2002 in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. The report also showed that total unaudited pre-tax profits for the jurisdiction's offshore banking industry stood at $112.1 million. This represented a turnaround from the previous year's $153 million losses, and has been attributed in large part to increased fee based trading, and less pressure from bad debt as offshore banks restructured their loans.

Last year saw the licensing of six offshore investment houses and two offshore banks, which brought the total number of banking institutions in the territory to 54 by the end of the year. Total deposits by non-bank customers stood at $5.9 billion at the end of 2002, up 60.4% according to the LOFSA report. Some 68.3% of these deposits were placed by overseas residents, which accounts for around $4 billion of the total.

Meanwhile, the jurisdiction's insurance industry posted a total underwriting profit of $6.8 million after suffering four continuous years of losses. In addition, fourteen new licenses were granted in the insurance sector, bringing the total number up to 99.

On the Labuan International Financial Exchange, nine new listings were recorded, improving on the previous year's single listing. Market capitalisation, consisting of both conventional and Islamic investment vehicles stood at $1.6 billion at the end of last year.