Bahamas improves global ranking in financial centers index

The Bahamas improved its ranking on the Global Financial Centres Index 28 (GFCI), improving its global ranking by 36 places and securing a spot as second best in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

The Bahamas now lands at number 69 on the GFCI, and is now recognized as the best in Latin America and the Caribbean, bested by only Bermuda which sits at 61.

In GFCI 27, The Bahamas was number 105 in the global standings.

This year’s report reveals that the Cayman Islands was unseated as the top jurisdiction in the region, falling to the fifth spot.

“Centres in Latin America and The Caribbean recovered ground in GFCI 28, with nine of the eleven centres in the region improving in the rankings since GFCI 27,” the report said.

“The Bahamas and Barbados improved considerably in the rankings, up 36 and 22 places respectively. Cayman Islands fell 31 places in the rankings.”

All of the jurisdictions in the region saw their ratings on the index plummet, except The Bahamas where the rating fell by only nine points.

“Overall, the average rating of centres in the index dropped over 41 points (6.25 percent) from GFCI 27, which may indicate a more general lack of confidence in finance during a time of continuing uncertainty around international trade, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual economies and geopolitical and local unrest,” the report said.

“For Latin America and The Caribbean, all centres in this region fell in the ratings, with the average rating for the region falling 54 points (8.66 percent).”

The Bahamas as an international financial center has come under fire of late from the European Commission (EC), which has labeled the country as a jurisdiction deficient in anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) oversight.

The country has sought to be removed from the EC’s blacklist, but the resurgence of COVID-19 in The Bahamas and other countries has caused an indefinite delay in the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) regional assessment that the government is certain will cause the country to be delisted.

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