The latest Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) List published by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) shows the imbalance in the market for expat pensions.
The top 10 financial jurisdictions account for 90% of the market by number of QROPS.
Australia and Ireland have grabbed 64% of the QROPS market by number of QROPS.
They are also the QROPS centres that have opened the most schemes in the past 12 months – with 261 in Australia and 41 in Ireland.
Looking at the other centres that have added the most QROPS in the past year, Gibraltar and Malta are the rising stars.
QROPS rising stars
Only 14 centres have seen more than two QROPS open – and Gibraltar providers set up 19 new pensions and those in Malta six new schemes.
Unfortunately, HMRC does not publish figures of pension transfer cash flowing into each jurisdiction. HMRC statistics suggest around 10,000 British expats and workers from overseas with UK pension rights switch their onshore pensions to a QROPS each year.
Looking through the QROPS list, many of the pensions are restricted to single members, families or corporations. This suggests much of the money is going to group schemes in financial centres that host pensions while allowing retirement savers to live somewhere else.
These ‘third party’ QROPS would be in centres like the Isle of Man, Malta and Gibraltar.
The next QROPS list is due on October 1, 2014.
The current list is available for download from the HMRC web site
| Top 10 QROPS Tables | ||
|---|---|---|
| Count of QROPS pensions | ||
| Values | ||
| Jurisdiction | September 16, 2013 | September 15, 2014 |
| Australia | 1228 | 1489 |
| Ireland | 724 | 765 |
| Isle of Man | 228 | 223 |
| Switzerland | 138 | 139 |
| Jersey | 135 | 137 |
| Netherlands | 104 | 114 |
| Canada | 94 | 96 |
| Guernsey | 51 | 79 |
| New Zealand | 48 | 59 |
| Germany | 56 | 55 |
| Total: | 2806 | 3156 |
| Market share by number of QROPS | ||
| Jurisdiction | September 15, 2014 | September 16, 2013 |
| Australia | 42.47% | 39.18% |
| Ireland | 21.82% | 23.10% |
| Isle of Man | 6.36% | 7.28% |
| Switzerland | 3.96% | 4.40% |
| Jersey | 3.91% | 4.31% |
| Netherlands | 3.25% | 3.32% |
| Canada | 2.74% | 3.00% |
| Guernsey | 2.25% | 1.63% |
| New Zealand | 1.68% | 1.53% |
| Germany | 1.57% | 1.79% |
| Grand Total | 90.02% | 89.53% |
| Most QROPS added in a year | ||
| Jurisdiction | Change Year-on-Year | |
| Australia | 261 | |
| Ireland | 41 | |
| Guernsey | 28 | |
| Gibraltar | 19 | |
| New Zealand | 11 | |
| Netherlands | 10 | |
| Malta | 6 | |
| Italy | 3 | |
| Hong Kong | 2 | |
| Canada | 2 | |
| Austria | 2 | |
| Latvia | 2 | |
| Jersey | 2 | |
| Luxembourg | 2 | |
| Grand Total | 391 | |
