Guernsey Bank Deposits and Funds Reached New Highs in 1999

Tax-news.com

07 March 2000

1999 was a record year for the offshore finance section according to fund and bank deposit statistics recently released by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
In the banking sector, total deposits held with Guernsey banks at the end of December 1999 increased 2.4% by £1,356 mn from the end of the previous quarter to reach a record level of £57,059 mn.

Nearly all this growth was in the dominant foreign currency market, which overall was unaffected by movements in the exchange rates due to the fact that the strengthening of the pound against the euro was offset by its weakening against the US dollar.

Sterling deposits were marginally up 0.3% by £63mn and accounted for 34% of deposits, and the largest single currency type within the total deposits remains USD at 46%. The euro and the euro legacy currencies accounted for 15% of deposits at the quarter end. Over the year as a whole deposits rose by £4,137 mn (7.8%).

Philip Marr, Director of Banking at the Guernsey FSC said "There was further solid growth in the deposit base during 1999. Although most of the increase was in the first half of the year it was gratifying to see some increase in deposits in the final quarter despite the uncertainties in the run up to the century date change at the year end."

1999 was also an outstanding year for the Guernsey fund management industry with the total value of assets under management in Guernsey authorised and approved collective investment funds increasing by £7.25 billion to a record £22.9 billion at 31 December, up 46.2% over the year.

The closed-ended sector was particularly buoyant, with the number of funds and their value up by 29 (14.4%) and £3.1 billion (57.8%) to new highs of 231 and £8.3 billion respectively.

While the number of funds in the open-ended sector showed a more modest growth of 7 (3.7%), their value increased by £4.2 billion (40.4%) to reach £14.7 billion at year-end, another record. Net new investment over the year, at £1.8 billion, was up by over 400% compared to 1998.

With some 39 fund applications under consideration, reflecting the continuing confidence of international funds sponsors and their professional advisers in Guernsey as a quality finance centre, the outlook for the year 2000 is equally encouraging.

Detailed fund management statistics and analysis are available from the Guernsey FSC website:
http://www.gfsc.guernseyci.com/news/archive/gfscifq12.html

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