Growth
Initially, market response to the legislation was slow, but by 1988 a steady core of incorporation work was evident. However, in 1990 the U.S. invaded Panama and arrested General Manuel Noriega. At the time, Panama had been one of the market leaders in the provision of offshore companies. However, the invasion badly shook investor confidence in Panama, and incorporations in the British Virgin Islands under the Act soared from 1991 onwards.
From 1991 the Act was remarkably successful generating large numbers of incorporations. The Companies Registry in the Territory had to be expanded twice to cope with the volume of incorporations. The Act was then copied widely by other Caribbean offshore financial centres.
Despite its American focus, the key market for IBCs incorporated within the Territory developed in Hong Kong. Use of British Virgin Islands IBCs became so ubiquitous in Hong Kong, that in commercial jargon offshore companies generally were generically referred to there as "BVIs".
In 2000, KPMG were commissioned by the British Government to produce a report on the offshore financial industry generally, and the report indicated that nearly 41% of the offshore companies in the world were formed in the British Virgin Islands, making the British Virgin Islands one of the world's leading offshore financial centres. As a direct result the Territory has one of the highest incomes per capita in the Caribbean.
| Year | Incorporations |
|---|---|
| 1984 | 1,000 |
| 1985 | 1,500 |
| 1986 | 1,700 |
| 1986 | 1,700 |
| 1987 | 2,000 |
| 1988 | 7,000 |
| 1989 | 9,500 |
| 1990 | 14,000 |
| 1991 | 15,000 |
| 1992 | 19,000 |
| 1993 | 27,000 |
| 1994 | 31,000 |
| 1995 | 30,000 |
| 1996 | 40,000 |
| 1997 | 60,000 |
Read more about this topic: International Business Companies Act
Famous quotes containing the word growth:
“For the time of towns is tolled from the world by funereal chimes, but in nature the universal hours are counted by succeeding tribes of animals and plants, and by growth of joy on joy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Every child has an inner timetable for growth—a pattern unique to him. . . . Growth is not steady, forward, upward progression. It is instead a switchback trail; three steps forward, two back, one around the bushes, and a few simply standing, before another forward leap.”
—Dorothy Corkville Briggs (20th century)
“There are enough fagots and waste wood of all kinds in the forests of most of our towns to support many fires, but which at present warm none, and, some think, hinder the growth of the young wood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)