Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) providers have added new offshore pensions at the rate of at least two every day for the past year despite the third ever largest mass suspension hitting the industry.
Although 118 QROPS were delisted by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on the publication of the last list on July 15, 2014, the top 10 financial centres added 697 new QROPS during the last 12 months.
HMRC and QROPS providers decline to comment on the latest day of the long knives to hit the QROPS industry.
This is just the third time since April 2006, when QROPS were started, that more than 100 schemes have been removed en masse from the official listing.
The others were in February 2010 (145) and April 2012 (368).
99 Australia QROPS delisted
Australia has taken the hardest knock this time, losing 99 QROPS.
The delisting has shrunk the financial jurisdiction’s market share by number of pensions by 5% in just two weeks.
However, Australia remains the financial jurisdiction hosting the most QROPS – 1,316, which is 402 more than the same time last year.
India QROPS were the other main casualty – where 15 out of 27 pensions were suspended.
The next QROPS list is due for publication on August 1, 2015.
| QROPS - Top 10 Financial Centres | ||
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Count of QROPS pensions | |
| Values | ||
| July 15, 2013 | July 15, 2014 | |
| Australia | 1200 | 1316 |
| Ireland | 717 | 759 |
| Isle of Man | 221 | 226 |
| Switzerland | 138 | 139 |
| Jersey | 136 | 136 |
| Netherlands | 101 | 110 |
| Canada | 98 | 92 |
| Guernsey | 47 | 73 |
| New Zealand | 48 | 59 |
| Germany | 54 | 55 |
| Total: | 2760 | 2965 |
| Source: HMRC | ||
| QROPS - Top 10 Jurisdictions Adding Most QROPS | ||
| Year To: | ||
| July 15, 2014 | ||
| Australia | 402 | |
| Ireland | 118 | |
| Guernsey | 44 | |
| Isle of Man | 34 | |
| Gibraltar | 29 | |
| New Zealand | 27 | |
| Netherlands | 13 | |
| Malta | 12 | |
| Italy | 10 | |
| Jersey | 8 | |
| Total: | 697 | |
| Source: HMRC | ||
| QROPS - Top 10 Jurisdictions by Market Share | ||
| Year To: | ||
| July 15, 2013 | July 15, 2014 | |
| Australia | 34.86% | 39.75% |
| Ireland | 24.45% | 22.92% |
| Isle of Man | 7.32% | 6.83% |
| Switzerland | 5.03% | 4.20% |
| Jersey | 4.88% | 4.11% |
| Netherlands | 3.70% | 3.32% |
| Canada | 3.51% | 2.78% |
| Guernsey | 1.11% | 2.20% |
| New Zealand | 1.22% | 1.78% |
| Germany | 2.02% | 1.66% |
| Total: | 88.10% | 89.55% |
| Source: HMRC | ||
