The top 10 Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension (QROPS) failed to change again with the publication of the latest list by HM Revenue & Customs.
Despite pensions regularly opening and closing worldwide, the top 10 have been firmly entrenched in their positions for some time.
Australia and Ireland still dominate the QROPS world by number of schemes – 1,990 out of 3,185 in 44 financial jurisdictions making up 62.5% of all QROPS pensions.
Outside the top 10, the rest of the world suffered a gross reduction of nine pensions, mainly due to the suspension of a number of schemes in the Caribbean, with St Lucia and St Vincent & The Grenadines losing QROPS status.
Outside the top 10, the movers and shakers are Italy, with 46 QROPS, adding one in the past fortnight; France has 40 QROPS and South Africa 31.
Fastest growing QROPS centres
The jurisdictions off the leaderboard that have made the most gains in the past year are Gibraltar, with 13 new pensions opening and Malta with eight.
Despite growing fast, to put the ambitions of the fastest growing jurisdictions outside the top 10, Gibraltar has a market share by number of schemes of 0.72% and Malta 0.5%. Together, they are still outranked by the 10th place scheme – New Zealand with 48 QROPS and a 1.51% market share.
Six new QROPS have opened in Italy in the past 12 months, putting the nation in 11th place in the offshore pension league, with 46 schemes and a market share of 1.44%. New Zealand has seen 13 new schemes open in the same period to retain a place at the top table.
Out of the 44 QROPS jurisdictions, 21 have seen no gross changes in the number of schemes during the past year and all but Switzerland are outside the top 10.
This could mean an equal number of QROPS have opened and closed to leave a gross change of zero.
| QROPS – Top 10 Jurisdiction Tracker – October 15, 2013 | ||||
| QROPS jurisdiction |
No of QROPS |
Since last list |
Market share |
|
|
1 |
Australia |
1254 |
10 |
39.37% |
|
2 |
Ireland |
736 |
3 |
23.11% |
|
3 |
Isle of Man |
229 |
0 |
7.19% |
|
4 |
Switzerland |
137 |
0 |
4.30% |
|
5 |
Jersey |
135 |
0 |
4.24% |
|
6 |
Netherlands |
105 |
0 |
3.30% |
|
7 |
Canada |
98 |
0 |
3.08% |
|
8 |
Germany |
56 |
0 |
1.76% |
|
9 |
Guernsey |
52 |
1 |
1.63% |
|
10 |
New Zealand |
48 |
0 |
1.51% |
| Top 10 Total: |
2850 |
14 |
89.48% |
|
| The rest |
335 |
-9 |
10.52% |
|
| Total: |
3185 |
5 |
100% |
|
Source: HMRC
