It’s difficult to work out where the money is going as around 10,000 expats and international workers transfer their money out of UK onshore pensions to Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS).
Nevertheless, looking at the latest QROPS List published by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on April 1, 2014 gives some clues.
HMRC did reveal more than £2 billion in pension funds has been shipped out of Britain into QROPS since the pension schemes were established on April 6, 2006.
However, the QROPS List only discloses how many pensions are based in each financial centre and gives no indication of the value of funds in any scheme.
Top 10 QROPS lists
The Top 10 countries with the most QROPS are listed below by number of QROPS and market share.
The third table illustrates which financial jurisdictions are the most active in adding QROPS.
Significantly, the top 10 financial centres are responsible for running 90% of the QROPS market.
Although Gibraltar and Malta are current adviser favourites, they only have 53 QROPS between them comprising 1.66% of the global market share by number of pensions – the same as Germany, which is placed ninth by market share.
Australia leads the table with a 40% share, followed by Ireland with 22%, making up two-thirds of the market between them.
| QROPS - Top 10 Financial Centres | ||
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Count of QROPS pensions | |
| March 13, 2104 | April 1, 2014 | |
| Australia | 1367 | 1375 |
| Ireland | 743 | 746 |
| Isle of Man | 236 | 236 |
| Switzerland | 138 | 136 |
| Jersey | 134 | 135 |
| Netherlands | 107 | 108 |
| Canada | 100 | 99 |
| Guernsey | 65 | 66 |
| Germany | 56 | 56 |
| New Zealand | 55 | 55 |
| Total: | 3001 | 3012 |
| Source: HMRC | ||
| QROPS - Top 10 Jurisdictions Adding Most QROPS | ||
| Jurisdiction | ||
| Year to April 1, 2014 | ||
| 1 | Australia | 256 |
| 2 | Ireland | 51 |
| 3 | Guernsey | 28 |
| 4 | Isle of Man | 24 |
| 5 | Gibraltar | 18 |
| 6 | New Zealand | 12 |
| 7 | India | 9 |
| 8 | Malta | 7 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 6 |
| 10 | Canada | 5 |
| Total: | 416 | |
| Source: HMRC | ||
| QROPS - Top 10 Jurisdictions by Market Share | ||
| Jurisdiction | ||
| Year to April 1, 2014 | ||
| 1 | Australia | 40.87% |
| 2 | Ireland | 22.18% |
| 3 | Isle of Man | 7.02% |
| 4 | Switzerland | 4.04% |
| 5 | Jersey | 4.01% |
| 6 | Netherlands | 3.21% |
| 7 | Canada | 2.94% |
| 8 | Guernsey | 1.96% |
| 9 | Germany | 1.66% |
| 10 | New Zealand | 1.63% |
| Total: | 89.52% | |
| Source: HMRC | ||
