An expert panel commissioned by the Government of Jersey has told the island's finance industry to compete with the Cayman Islands for London-managed offshore fund business, naming Cayman as one of four markets to target. The recommendations are annexed to Time to Win, the action plan for Jersey's financial services sector that the Government of Jersey, the Channel Island Crown Dependency, published on 16 March 2026.

The Government's release said the plan is supported by £30 million identified in its 2026-2029 Budget; the report's conclusion puts the funding at "almost £31 million". The plan drew renewed attention on 21 September 2026, when The Guardian published a report from the island, and Cayman Finance, the promotional body for Cayman's financial industry, answered questions from The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) about it on 24 September.

The panel's summary of recommendations says Jersey's funds sector should "reposition as specialist jurisdiction for funds and alternative vehicles marketed outside the EU, complementing EU onshore centres such as Ireland and Luxembourg and competing with Cayman for London-managed off-shore fund business". Its recommendation on geographic expansion lists the U.S., Cayman, the Gulf states and Africa as the markets Jersey should target. The panel was chaired by Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest Group from 2015 to 2024.

The Government of Jersey's own action plan does not name Cayman. Its section on funds says Jersey's positioning "as a specialist, alternatives-focused centre complementing EU onshore jurisdictions is the right strategic choice, alongside growth in other markets". Deputy Ian Gorst, Jersey's Minister for External Relations with responsibility for financial services, said in the 16 March release that the panel had "produced recommendations on which we have based our own action plan".

The business in Jersey's sights

The business the panel describes is measured in Cayman's fund registrations, and they are rising. Cayman Finance said on 13 July 2026, citing the second-quarter statistics published by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), that 31,145 regulated funds were domiciled in Cayman at 30 June 2026, comprising 18,132 private funds and 13,013 mutual funds, "the category under which hedge funds are typically registered". That was up from 30,598 at the end of 2025: 547 funds were added in the first six months of 2026, against 448 in the whole of 2025, and private fund registrations have risen by 43% since the end of 2020. Samantha Widmer, Director and Head of Funds and Capital Markets at Cayman Finance, said: "The growth comes from institutional investors increasing their private market allocations, greater demand for continuation vehicles and a steady flow of new hedge fund launches."

Cayman Finance told TCJ on 24 September that it does not comment on the competitive strategies or promotional initiatives of other jurisdictions. In a statement attributed to a spokesperson, it said Cayman "operates in a constantly evolving and competitive global environment" and that its focus is on strengthening the jurisdiction's position across its financial services industry, including investment funds. It said it employs a dedicated product development specialist who works with members to identify ways to enhance Cayman's regulatory and commercial framework and processes. The Ministry of Financial Services and Commerce, to which the Ministry of Finance passed TCJ's questions on 21 September, did not respond to emailed requests for comment sent on 21 and 24 September.

"Many funds managed from London and Dublin use feeder funds located in Cayman," the panel wrote in its report, and Jersey "should explore whether and how it might capture some of this business". A feeder fund is a vehicle through which investors place money in a larger master fund. Success, the panel wrote, "will require becoming more efficient and more competitive in every dimension, from regulatory processes to fee structures to the quality of the investor experience".

Jersey has already changed the product it wants to sell. The Government's plan cites reforms to the Jersey Private Fund that took effect in August 2025, which removed the 50-investor cap, introduced a 24-hour turnaround for compliant applications and widened the definition of a professional investor. It calls those changes "the clearest example of what reform looks like when it works" and says they have driven growth.

Why Jersey is looking beyond Europe

The panel's case for turning towards Cayman's market starts with a problem in Jersey's own. It wrote that although the headline data suggest the island's core funds business continues to grow, "the reality is that Jersey's overall market share is in decline". The EU's Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, which requires funds marketed in the EU's single market to be located within it, has led to what the panel called "an exodus of funds to onshore financial centres, primarily to Luxembourg and Ireland". Jersey funds can still be sold in some member states under national private placement rules, but the panel warned that access could be restricted further if large member states pursue a single pan-European securities regulator.

The panel's warning to its own government was direct. "Without urgent intervention, Jersey's future success as a financial centre is at risk, with inevitable repercussions for the Jersey way of life," it wrote. The Government's release of 16 March said the sector accounts for more than half of the island's £6 billion economy, two in five jobs and £6 in every £10 of tax revenue. Andrew McLaughlin, Chief Executive Officer of the Government of Jersey, wrote on the Government's blog on 19 March 2026 that "the last deep review was in 2014". The report says that while the sector is growing, Jersey "is therefore losing ground in relative terms", and identifies emerging centres in Asia and the Middle East as the fastest-growing competitors.

The panel said Jersey's offer of tax neutrality, under which funds and other finance-sector customers pay no tax on the island and tax is paid when money is brought onshore, remains central to its appeal but no longer sets it apart. Ireland and Luxembourg now offer tax neutrality for funds and zero VAT on fund management fees, it wrote, "putting them on a par with Jersey".

The report places the contest with Cayman inside a larger one. In 1970 there were 14 major international financial centres; by 2025, it says, there were 135. Singapore, Dubai and Abu Dhabi have invested heavily in regulation, talent and digital infrastructure, and the report says their standards "are no longer materially weaker than Jersey's". In customer experience, speed of authorisation, digital onboarding and regulatory transparency, it says, "they are measurably stronger", and the centres growing fastest are those that have made speed and certainty "core institutional commitments, not just marketing propositions".

Where the two centres meet

Cayman appears a second time in the material annexed to the plan, in a workstream summary dated October 2025, as a competitor closing the gap on regulatory standards. The summary says Cayman's anti-money-laundering technical compliance score "jumped from 27 to 40 in two years", that Cayman, Bermuda and the Dubai International Financial Centre "have also achieved white-listed status", and that "the gap with the competitors is narrowing". Its source note says the score counts the Financial Action Task Force's 40 Recommendations on which a jurisdiction is rated compliant or largely compliant. The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force's mutual evaluation report on Cayman, published in March 2019, rated 27 of the 40 compliant or largely compliant; follow-up re-ratings took the figure to 40 by October 2021, and the Cayman Islands Government said when CFATF adopted its sixth and final follow-up report at the body's 60th Plenary that Cayman held compliant or largely compliant ratings on all 40. The same summary says the Dubai International Financial Centre has brought its trust structures "closer in sophistication and flexibility" to those offered by Jersey and Cayman.

The two centres are also competing for the same new product. Jersey's plan commits to "taking a lead on tokenisation", the issuing of fund interests as digital tokens, and the panel said Jersey "should consider focusing on tokenised private assets administration and governance". Institutions adopting tokenisation will require "legal certainty, governance strength, reliable operational controls and regulatory interoperability", it wrote, and "few jurisdictions offer all four, but Jersey potentially can". In Cayman, the Mutual Funds (Amendment) Act, 2026, the Private Funds (Amendment) Act, 2026 and the Virtual Asset (Service Providers) (Amendment) Act, 2026 were published in Legislation Gazette No. 16 on 24 March 2026. Cayman Finance said on 13 July that the amendments "removed the dual-licensing risk that had previously slowed institutional decisions" and that 12 tokenised funds had since registered with CIMA, including Fidelity International's first tokenised fund.

What Jersey says it will change

Deputy Gorst said in the 16 March release that "we are facing increased competition from other centres, and emerging technology is allowing people and businesses to move around with increasing ease". He added: "We therefore need to fight harder than ever before to maintain our competitive edge." The Guardian's report of 21 September, by Kalyeena Makortoff, quoted him on the register of company beneficial owners, which the UK has pressed Jersey to open: "I don't intend to make our register public, and I've been clear to the UK about that."

Cayman's register is not public either. Since 28 February 2025, the Beneficial Ownership Transparency (Legitimate Interest Access) Regulations, 2024, made under the Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act, have allowed a member of the public to apply to the Registrar for beneficial ownership information on a named company if they are engaged in journalism or bona fide academic research, act for a civil society organisation whose purpose includes combating money laundering or terrorist financing, or are in an actual or potential business relationship with that company, and in each case can show a legitimate interest in preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting money laundering or terrorist financing. The Government has said access will continue on a legitimate-interest basis and that no global standard requires fully public registers. Amending regulations published in the Legislation Gazette on 18 March 2026 raised the application fee from US$30 to US$75 and introduced a US$250 annual fee for repeat applicants.

Mr McLaughlin wrote on 19 March that "'no regret' actions will be directed to government entities before the election period and larger financial decisions will be for the next government". The report says four areas will provide early evidence of whether the reset is working: funds, "where recent reforms must translate into sustained growth"; banking, "where simplification of the regulatory framework supports growth"; digital, "where the pace of innovation and adoption will determine whether Jersey leads or observes"; and private wealth and family offices, "whose clients' behaviour will be the most reliable indicator of progress". The Government's delivery roadmap, annexed to the plan, lists ministerial trade visits to priority markets from September onwards and names the U.S. and the Gulf Cooperation Council states; Cayman does not appear in that list.