Biography

Timothy Ridley is a graduate of Cambridge University (BA, Senior Scholar, Trinity College) and Harvard Law School (LL.M, Kennedy Memorial Scholar), qualified as a solicitor in England and is an attorney-at-law in the Cayman Islands. For many years, he was a senior partner of the leading Cayman Islands law firm and from 1995 until 2000 led the Asia practice in Hong Kong. He specialized in a broad range of international financial transactions. He continues to provide legal consulting and advisory services and to serve as an expert witness on Cayman Islands legal and regulatory matters, and holds directorships in various private companies engaged in a broad range of activities.

He has wide regulatory and governance experience, having served on the Boards of the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority (2002-2005) and the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (2002-2008, Chairman 2004-2008). He is a member of the Disciplinary Tribunal Committee of the Cayman Islands Society of Professional Accountants (CISPA). He has also served on various consultative committees that advise the Cayman Islands Government on matters relating to the financial services and local industries.

He has taught law at the University of Southampton and at Trinity College, Cambridge and writes and speaks widely on Cayman Islands’ legal, financial and regulatory issues. He is a member of numerous international professional associations and has served on the editorial boards of leading publications, including the Harvard International Law Journal. He was most recently chairman of the editorial advisory board of the Cayman Financial Review.

In recognition of his services to the financial services industry and the local community, he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 1996.

Article Title

THE FUTURE OF OFFSHORE FINANCIAL CENTRES - Rereading the Tea Leaves from a Cayman Perspective

Abstract

No one should be under any illusion as to the vital importance of the financial services industry to the economic well-being of small international financial services centres (OFCs) such as the Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, Gibralter and the Isle of Man. It is the major driver of the high per capita GDP figures. Some of these jurisdictions have thriving tourism industries also. But these, while welcome, tend for the most part to provide unskilled and low paying jobs.

Less well understood is the often beneficial role OFC’s play in the allocation of global capital in legitimate ways. The picture often painted of OFC’s by the ‘noisy” media of shady places for shady people overlooks that the bulk of the flows through OFC’s are legal and are a natural part of globalization.

After a volatile few years since early 2008, the financial services industry globally is now slowly recovering from the global financial crisis. In Cayman, the hedge fund industry is re-energised and growing again, captive insurance is hanging in, but the debt side (securitization) is still quiet, albeit with some green shoots. Banking and fiduciary (trust) businesses are essentially flat. Overall, the recovery in OFCs is patchy as yet and they cannot afford to become complacent again on the basis it is soon to be “happy days are here again”. They must continue to be vigilant to ensure their long term stability and success in the future. This paper examines how this can be done.