(CNS): The Cayman Islands has jumped up eleven places in this year’s first edition of The Global Financial Centres Index. The biannual report rates and then ranks over 100 cities and jurisdictions that offer financial services, and Cayman is now the highest ranked centre in the Caribbean, with a rating of over 700 points, leapfrogging Bermuda, which was ahead of Cayman in the last issue, making this jurisdiction the highest ranked non-G20 centre on the list.

The improvement for Cayman of nine places over the September 2017 edition was the highest for all British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. All centres in the Latin American and Caribbean region fell in the ratings except for the Cayman Islands.

Cayman Finance CEO Jude Scott welcomed the significant showing for Cayman on the index.

“The GFCI 23 ranking shows that the more financial services industry and government leaders learn about the Cayman Islands, the higher they rate our jurisdiction among the world’s financial centres,” he said. “We have spent the last year engaged in an unprecedented effort to define our long-standing commitment to serve as a premier global financial hub that meets or exceeds the highest global standards for transparency and cross-border information sharing and our improvement in the GFCI ranking is a reflection of the success of that effort.”

The listing is published in London, which has always been ranked first, with New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai traditionally dominating the top five. The authors examine the business environment, access to human capital, infrastructure, financial sector development and the reputation of each of the centres. Cayman was profiled as an international specialist jurisdiction and a dynamic centre, while Bermuda was described as volatile.

The index covers a comprehensive assessment of more than a hundred factors, taking information from over 23,000 people in the financial industry as well as organisations such as the World Bank, the OECD and the United Nations.

“The Cayman Islands financial services industry remains focused on the kind of innovation and commitment to global standards that has helped us achieve this kind of success,” said Scott.

See the full report here