The meeting between Gibraltar chief minister Peter Caruana, Jersey chief minister Terry Le Sueur and Guernsey chief minister Lyndon Trott took place in Gibraltar, and followed months of increased scrutiny of Britain’s offshore jurisdicitions by authorities in the UK and other G20 countries.
It also took place less than two months after a prominent Channel Island banker called on Jersey and Guernsey to work more closely together, citing the increasingly competitive global arena for financial services.
According to a Gibraltar government statement, the Channel Islands delegations also met with Gibraltar commissioner of Income Tax Frank Carreras; Finance Centre director James Tipping; and the head of Gibraltar’s new European Union & international Department, Michael Llamas.
In a column which initially appeared in Business Brief, a local monthly business journal, Deutsche Bank chief country officer Andreas Tautscher said "the idea that we can sit here in the Channel Islands and wait for business has long perished, but equally, we should not be wasting resources fighting our neighbour just a few miles away for a share of that business.
“To expend energy trying to compete with each other does not make sense anymore.
“Instead we should be playing to the strengths of the Channel Islands as an integral whole.”
