Investing in Cayman

Piers Alexander • Posted 12/12/2008 • Under Articles

As a financial centre at the forefront of the investment funds industry, Cayman is the focus of some forthright opinions. However, as some participants of the more regulated sectors of the financial services industry fail, the argument of a correlation between greater regulation and investor protection seems, increasingly, fallacious.

Cayman has historically been an attractive jurisdiction of domicile for funds, but when the legislation does not regulate closed-ended funds and, for open-ended funds, does not prescribe their commercial terms, trading or investment strategies, or impose parameters for leverage or fee levels, what then is the attraction for investors?

No jurisdiction will be all-things-to-all men but Cayman does offer a neutral location, with a strength of legislation and core corporate governance principles sufficient to give an appropriate level of investor comfort. The test, of course, will be how Cayman weathers the current global problems. There is no magic to Cayman in particular, but there are a number of guiding principles which do weigh in its favour as a jurisdiction for fund business.