It would appear that the British Virgin Islands has not escaped the contagion of the global financial and economic crisis after Premier and Minister for Finance Ralph T. O'Neal disclosed recently that 2008 was "a year of little or no growth in financial services."
Responding to a question in the First House of Assembly, O'Neal revealed that company incorporations were down by 20% in 2008 compared with the record year of 2007, when 75,000 companies registered in the jurisdiction. Nonetheless, last year's figures are still the third-best on record, with corresponding revenue holding up well, he said.
However, it is the captive insurance and mutual fund sectors of the BVI's financial services industry that are being most badly affected by the global events, he relayed to the Assembly.
"The [Financial Services] Commission has already seen evidence of this in the increased number of requests by funds for voluntary cancellation and by notification of suspensions of redemptions as well as a downturn in the number of new applications for recognition," O'Neal said.
As a result, the Premier expects to see "minimal" growth in these structures in the first half of 2009. However, he is reasonably optimistic that the rate of company registrations will remain healthy in the year ahead.
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