Australia has cemented her place as queen of the Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) with 29 new pensions opening in the past two weeks.
The financial jurisdiction has surged ahead as the most popular destination for British expats and international workers to switch their pensions.
For the first time, Australia has a 40% of the QROPS market by number of pensions.
Jersey also jumped a place above Switzerland as the fourth most popular destination by number with the opening of one QROPS to take the number on the Channel Island to 136 with 4% of the market.
The only other movers out of the 42 QROPS jurisdictions was Belgium, which moved up one place to 16th by adding a pension, but with 23 QROPS, only has 0.069% of the market share.
Global number of QROPS hits new high
Austria also saw one new QROPS open to stay in 21st place with 11 schemes and 0.33% market share.
With 39 pensions added and one suspended in Malta, the global number of QROPS reached a new record high of 3,314 pensions.
The figures come from the latest HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) QROPS list, published on February 17, 2014.
The list details the number of pensions in each jurisdiction, but does not include the amount invested.
The next list is due for publication on March 1, 2014.
The full list of QROPS by financial centre, number and market share is:
| QROPS List - February 17, 2014 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QROPS Jurisdiction | Count of QROPS pensions | |||
| Feb 15, 2013 | Feb 17,2014 | |||
| Australia | 1083 | 1333 | ||
| Austria | 9 | 11 | ||
| Barbados | 4 | 2 | ||
| Belgium | 22 | 23 | ||
| Bulgaria | 3 | 3 | ||
| Canada | 94 | 100 | ||
| Czech Republic | 4 | 3 | ||
| Denmark | 8 | 8 | ||
| European Union | 1 | 1 | ||
| Finland | 4 | 3 | ||
| France | 38 | 41 | ||
| Germany | 53 | 56 | ||
| Gibraltar | 14 | 33 | ||
| Greece | 1 | 1 | ||
| Guernsey | 38 | 61 | ||
| Hong Kong | 25 | 4 | ||
| Hungary | 1 | 1 | ||
| Iceland | 3 | 3 | ||
| India | 18 | 27 | ||
| Ireland | 686 | 743 | ||
| Isle of Man | 211 | 235 | ||
| Italy | 42 | 47 | ||
| Jamaica | 2 | 2 | ||
| Jersey | 132 | 135 | ||
| Latvia | 1 | 1 | ||
| Liechtenstein | 2 | 3 | ||
| Luxembourg | 8 | 8 | ||
| Malta | 11 | 19 | ||
| Mauritius | 2 | 2 | ||
| Netherlands | 101 | 107 | ||
| New Zealand | 40 | 55 | ||
| Norway | 5 | 7 | ||
| Portugal | 23 | 23 | ||
| Russian Federation | 1 | 1 | ||
| South Africa | 31 | 31 | ||
| Spain | 16 | 16 | ||
| Sri Lanka | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sweden | 7 | 8 | ||
| Switzerland | 134 | 136 | ||
| Trinidad & Tobago | 3 | 2 | ||
| Turkey | 3 | 3 | ||
| USA | 14 | 15 | ||
| Total: | 2899 | 3314 | ||
