Cayman

The Cayman economy has a high GDP per head and it is often referred to as the world’s fifth biggest banking centre. Approximately 80% of the world’s hedge funds are domiciled in Cayman.

Cayman has a well-developed financial infrastructure. Fund registrations in Cayman continue to be strong and this domicile is popular with investors around the world, particularly those in Asia, the Gulf and Latin America. Cayman is likely to remain the dominant jurisdiction for offshore hedge funds for some time to come.

There are approximately 8,500 registered funds domiciled in Cayman. The assets of these funds exceeds $2 trillion. All the major auditing firms have practices here as do many law firms. It also has 88 fully licensed administrators and 220 banks.

Targeting the large number of hedge funds domiciled in Cayman this jurisdiction has often come under attack from competitors, particularly Ireland. In the wake of the market crisis the Irish government put fast track redomiciliation procedures in place to lure Cayman funds to Dublin. But few took up the offer and the number of funds in Cayman is now back to the pre-market crisis peak.

Population (approx): 53,000