By Simon Gray – Switzerland’s southernmost canton of Ticino has been a centre for international financial services for nearly two centuries, since the establishment of Lugano’s first bank in 1833. Closer to Milan than to Zurich, the Italian-speaking region is ideally placed geographically and culturally as a gateway to business from southern Europe. Today Ticino and in particular Lugano is becoming a major centre for hedge fund managers drawn not just by the physical beauty of the region’s mountains and lakes and its impressive quality of life but key business advantages: a first-rate communications infrastructure, a flexible but solid and

By Simon Gray – One of the most striking developments in the European fund industry over the past five years has been the emergence of Malta as a credible and respected fund domicile and servicing centre. While the industry as a whole has been afflicted by liquidity issues, economic and market turbulence and investor skittishness, keeping both fund numbers and asset growth constrained, the Mediterranean island has steadily expanded its business volume along with its range of providers and skills. Members of Malta’s fund industry attribute its rapid development to a combination of factors – a low cost base compared

By Simon Gray – The British Virgin Islands may be most famous in the international financial services industry for its corporate business, but for more than a decade it has been the world’s second-ranking offshore fund domicile. Comprising law firms, accounting and audit practices, fund administrators, asset managers and banks, the sector has played its part in sparking a construction boom on reclaimed land around the picturesque bay setting of the BVI capital, Road Town. Today the territory’s fund service providers are examining the opportunities arising in a global environment characterised by a drive toward greater regulation and transparency, just

By Simon Gray – Over the past decade The Bahamas has continued to refine itself as a financial services centre, carving out new niches in wealth management and highly specialised investment vehicles to distinguish itself from other jurisdictions in the region, and to meet the evolving requirements of a global market amid far-reaching changes in international regulatory standards and transparency requirements.   In particular, the development of the highly flexible series of Specific Mandate Alternative Regulatory Test (SMART) funds – there are now seven distinct risk-adjusted templates or models – has given The Bahamas a unique instrument adaptable to both

By Simon Gray – The past few years of economic and financial crisis have brought significant change to both the traditional and alternative fund sectors, and nowhere more than in the domiciles chosen by or for fund managers, service providers and investment vehicles. A number of established fund jurisdictions are coming under pressure, whether economic, regulatory or legal, just as other financial centres position themselves to take advantages of new opportunities. The alternative fund industry in particular is in the process of rethinking various aspects of its structure as it seeks to adapt to a still troubled economic environment, hesitation