Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar notes the repeated, relentless and belligerent attacks on Gibraltar Financial Services industry by Together Gibraltar Member of Parliament and leader, Hon Ms Marlene Hassan Nahon MP.
The Government notes that in a recent statement[1], Ms Nahon has said that Gibraltar’s financial services sector:
“… is a morally bankrupt industry with inherent risks attached to it.”
In the same post she goes on to say that Gibraltar must:
“… reduce our dependence on industries like … tax avoidance”.
This is, however, not an isolated incident and it is not the only occasion on which the leader of Together Gibraltar has made her hostility to the Gibraltar financial services industry clear.
In fact, on a number of previous occasions, and in Parliament during the Budget session, Ms Hassan Nahon has set out a clear policy of belligerence against the continued provision of well regulated financial services from Gibraltar.
Moreover, Ms Hassan Nahon has set out that her position, if she were elected to Government, is that she would dismantle this highly successful part of our economy.
This was most clearly set out by her at the last Budget session of Parliament which she said:
“… we have clear shortcomings when it comes to our anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financial controls… My party, Together Gibraltar, and I have said many times that Gibraltar needs profound structural changes, … that it had to move away from fiscal dumping and opaque fiances because sooner or later it was clear that these industries would come into direct conflict with an evolving world, a world in which public coffers cannot afford any more tax avoidance…[2]”
In making these statements, Ms Hassan Nahon has disregarded the fact that, Gibraltar is not involved in fiscal dumping and opaque finances and that in the most recent Employment Survey of 2020[3] , 2,208 Individuals and their families depend DIRECTLY on the financial services sector[4].
Those who work in related and dependent industries are also a huge number in the thousands. They include everyone working in the gaming industry (also over 3,650 individuals and their families) and a large number of the many thousands working in the hospitality industry (also over 2,000 individuals and their families).
The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo QC MP, said: “I am very proud of the work done by financial services companies in Gibraltar. That includes the professionals, the lawyers, accountants and all the professional clerical staff and all those who work in providing world class financial services from Gibraltar as a low tax jurisdiction. The United Kingdom has recognized the excellent work done in Gibraltar by our highly regulated financial services sector by referring to Gibraltar as a ‘bench mark jurisdiction’ in anti-money laundering and agreeing that Gibraltar can continue to operate on the basis of a single market and the passporting of our services into the United Kingdom itself after our departure from the European Union. Even the European Union recognized that Gibraltar’s financial services were up to the highest standards when the Code Group and the ECOFIN of the EU accepted the Gibraltar Income Tax Act was not a harmful tax measure[5]. Even entities that are paid to be “critical friends” to which we have submitted our regulations, like Moneyval, have recognized the huge progress made by financial services providers in Gibraltar in all areas of regulation. Ms Hassan Nahon is the only member of Parliament in Gibraltar’s history to have taken the approach that we have to close down our finance centre. She has fallen hook, line and sinker for the arguments put by our enemies and she has adopted those arguments as her own against the interests of this important Gibraltarian industry and the many individuals, families and other industries that rely on it. Perhaps what is most ironic is that Ms Hassan Nahon has recognised, in the same social media post, that her great family wealth originates from the very financial services which she criticizes and used to work in. Her calluous disregard for the livelihoods of those who work in the financial services industry is a remarkable indictment of her and a demonstration of the reason why she should not be entrusted with ministerial responsibility and the power she craves to destroy this industry. This is highly serious and everyone in the financial services and related gaming and other industries will want to ensure that, having shown such irresponsibility, Ms Hassan Nahon progresses no further in terms of political responsibility in our community.”
ENDS
[1] https://twitter.com/MHassanNahon/status/1503717118663139330?s=20&t=2GSoH2pN4qmbqnafl5iCSQ
[2] Marlene Hassan Nahon MP, Budget Speech, 23rd July 2021:
https://www.parliament.gi/uploads/contents/hansard/hansard_2021/friday_23rd_july_2021_afternoon_session.pdf
[3] https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/uploads/statistics/2020/Reports/Employment%20Survey%20Report%202020.pdf
[4] See analysis of ‘all employee jobs’ in the financial intermediation business.
[5] https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/new/sites/default/files/Press%20archives/Press%20Releases/2013/441-2013.pdf
