Guernsey Funds Industry Resilient

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

26 October 2010

Guernsey’s funds industry has shown resilience despite adverse market conditions, according to Lipper’s latest Guernsey Fund Encyclopedia.

The 16th annual analysis of the island’s fund sector, compiled by Thomson Reuters, has revealed that Guernsey’s fund servicing industry fell by less than 4% to stand at GBP177.6bn (USD278.7bn) at the end of June, with the total number of funds and sub-funds standing at 1,949, down from 2,057 a year earlier.

However, non-domiciled funds serviced in Guernsey rose by just over GBP1.25bn in the last year to reach GBP26.9bn.

Private equity and venture capital funds now account for 47% of assets domiciled in the Island at GBP70bn.

Ed Moisson, head of UK and cross-border research at Lipper said the figures showed Guernsey was performing well: “The tougher market conditions cannot be underestimated and yet Guernsey continues to carve out niche areas of growth, such as servicing funds domiciled elsewhere,” he said.

According to the Lipper figures, Northern Trust remains the largest administrator for both Guernsey domiciled and non-Guernsey domiciled funds by total assets with GBP30.4bn, ahead of Ipes on GBP22.5bn, and Apax Partners with GBP16.9bn.

Northern Trust also has the largest proportion of assets under custody, with GBP9.2bn, a rise of just over a billion from June 2009. This puts it ahead of HSBC Custody Services, which has GBP9.1bn of assets under custody.

Carey Olsen remains the largest legal adviser to the funds industry, advising 809 firms, whilst recently merged Mourant Ozannes is second with 543. Ogier and Bedell Cristin provide legal advice to 223, and 102 firms, respectively.

PwC is the island’s top auditor, providing audits to 526 funds, ahead of KPMG which audits 423.

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