The Bahamas has slipped another three places to 67th on the Y/Zen Group’s 9th Global Financial Services Index (GFSI), published yesterday.
The jurisdiction’s slip in ranking came along with a fall in its rating, from 529 six months ago to 517, behind all other offshore centers on the list.
The news comes as The Bahamas hosts financial training institutes from around the world during the 9th World Conference of Banking Institutes. Ironically, their role impacts greatly on the single most important determinant of jurisdictional competitiveness — the availability of skilled personnel.
The availability of skilled personnel factored at the top of the 14 competitiveness factors used in the GFSI methodology, ahead of factors like the regulatory environment (second), the availability of business infrastructure (fourth), government responsiveness (seventh) and the corporate tax regime (eighth). With the jurisdiction’s declared focus on wealth management, the human resources factor becomes even more critical,
