Financial Centres of the World 2021: Focus on the British Virgin Islands – an interview with Simon Gray of BVI Finance.
30/07/2021
On Thursday 22nd July 2021, Simon Gray was interviewed by Mike Wardle of Z-Yen Group for an exclusive webinar under the theme: Financial Centres of the World 2021: Focus on the British Virgin Islands. In this webinar, Simon explores the favourable business climate of efficiency and innovation in our product and service offering that continues to make the British Virgin Islands so popular as an International Financial Centre. The webinar follows the BVI’s recent elevation in ranking from the Global Financial Centre;s Index (GFCI) for top IFC for Latin America and the Caribbean region and its rising 14 places in its latest global index.
During the webinar, Simon explained why in just 30 years the BVI has firmly established itself as one of the world’s leading international finance centres and the go-to jurisdiction for the incorporation of companies – especially those created to facilitate cross-border trade, investment and business. He also demonstrated the BVI’s capacity for innovation and creativity with its FinTech initiative and diverse product mix in funds, trusts and business companies. Gray spoke of the BVI’s resilience – citing business increases on all-fronts in spite of COVID and how well the territory kept business going in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017.
Using this as an opportunity, Gray explains that the crisis has accelerated the BVI’s own digital transformation in terms of business and working practices with a long-term view that continued to innovate for growth. Gray advised that the BVI quickly adopted new technologies to facilitate virtual events including conferences and round tables for international clients across regions such as China, Africa and Latin America – under the banner of its Virtually Together Virtually Everywhere initiative.
The BVI always seeks to benchmark with the best, consults widely and looks to take advantage of gaps in the market - be it innovation in trust structures for Family Offices and Succession Planning, funds, business companies or quite simply exemplary service standards. A small collection of islands perhaps – but one with a global impact. Long may it continue.
You can watch the webinar in full on either fsclub.com and on YouTube.