Bahamas Financial Services Industry To Undergo 'Branding' Study

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

15 November 2005

The Ministry of Financial Services and Investments' (MFSI) decision to enlist PricewaterhouseCoopers, the professional services firm, to undertake a branding study and analysis of the Bahamas as an international financial services centre has been hailed as an important step forward for the jurisdiction's development by the Bahamas Financial Services Board (BFSB).

The research survey, known as 'The Bahamas Strategy & Branding Survey' will be sent to a wide range of organisations within and outside The Bahamas in order to collect and analyse information that will assist in policy development, identify opportunities for developing financial services and determine how the "Bahamas Brand” is presented to the international investment community.

"The need for market research, identified by BFSB as critical in developing a forward-looking comprehensive strategy for the jurisdiction, has been a key discussion point in our communication with government over the past year," the BFSB, the government's investment promotion body, observed.

"The active engagement of the private sector at all phases of this project is essential to its success," the Board added.

It is hoped that the conclusions of the survey will help provide a yardstick by which to measure the Bahamas against other offshore jurisdictions and enable the BFSB to target its activities more effectively.

To date, the BFSB has gone about its business by highlighting to potential international investors the Bahamas' strengths, which, it believes, lie in its skilled workforce, national sovereignty, respect for privacy and the rule of law, absence of direct taxation, modern legal framework, attractive lifestyle and location.

However, the BFSB has acknowledged that competition for business within the offshore world is becoming fierce, and that the Bahamas is perhaps falling short of the competition in certain areas. For example, while the Bahamas is a leader in private wealth management services in the Americas, it has failed to make inroads into other markets.

"While our message has been generally well received, it is also clear that the playing field is levelling out - the competition is more aggressive, better funded and more visible, and other jurisdictions which are far less developed and sophisticated are perceived to be more developed and sophisticated. Bad or poor experiences with any aspect of our jurisdiction burden us with perceptions that are difficult to dispel," the Board stated.

The MFSI has indicated that it will utilise the Bahamas Financial Services Retreat 2006 to present the results of the survey to the private sector. Its conclusions are expected to form a part of the revised 'five year strategic plan' for the jurisdiction's financial services industry.

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