Supporting CDOT economies
Financial services represent 40% of GDP
Financial services represent 30% of GDP
Financial services represent 37% of GDP
Financial services support around 10,000 jobs and contributes around £2.7bn to GDP
International business employs over 5,000 people, about 15% of all jobs
Between 2017 and 2020, Jersey intermediated an average of £1.4 trillion in capital annually, supporting £170.3 billion in global GDP, 5.1 million jobs and £73.3 billion in wages across global markets.
The total net asset value of Guernsey funds at the end of 2025 was £272.8 billion, making the island one of the world’s leading specialist centres for international investment funds.
Cayman now regulates almost 31,000 funds, managing assets exceeding $8.5 trillion, consolidating its status as the world’s leading offshore centre.
BVI-mediated investment supports around 2.3 million jobs worldwide and generates more than $14 billion in annual tax revenues for governments globally, while facilitating an estimated $1.4 trillion in cross-border trade and investment.
Bermuda reinsurers make up approximately 36% of the global reinsurance market based on property and casualty net premiums earned. Bermuda insurers/reinsurers employ 53,380 people worldwide and from 2016 – 2023, paid nearly $1 trillion in claims.
Despite a population of only 39,000, Gibraltar-based insurers wrote £9.7 billion of premia in 2024, making it one of Europe’s leading jurisdictions for insurance and captive structures.
Jersey
Cayman Islands
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Guernsey
Guernsey
Gibraltar
A trusted platform: The CDOTs also serve a vital role intermediating investment for investors from jurisdictions with underdeveloped institutions, providing legal certainty and a structured institutional framework for them to deploy their capital abroad.
English common law at their core: The Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories are independent, self-governing jurisdictions with deep historical and constitutional links to the UK. Many operate legal systems rooted in English common law and work in the English language, giving international investors, businesses and advisers a familiar and trusted framework for cross-border transactions. This legal alignment matters. It means the CDOTs are not detached from the UK’s legal and professional services ecosystem, but closely connected to it. Their courts, regulators and professional services firms operate within systems that international clients understand, helping to extend the reach and reputation of British legal and institutional standards around the world.
A trusted platform for global business: For international investors, confidence is critical. The CDOTs offer familiar legal systems, experienced professional services sectors and established regulatory frameworks, which together provide the certainty needed for complex international investment, insurance and corporate activity. That trust helps make the British family of jurisdictions more competitive. By combining political stability, legal familiarity and specialist financial expertise, the CDOTs give global businesses a platform that is commercially efficient while remaining connected to the UK’s wider legal and institutional reputation.
A practical extension of UK strengths: The CDOTs complement some of the UK’s strongest international sectors, including fund management, insurance, legal services, arbitration, corporate transactions and international finance. Their specialist financial centres provide platforms through which global capital can be structured, administered and deployed into productive investment, including into the UK economy. This creates practical benefits for the UK. CDOT-based structures and firms generate client work for British law firms, advisers, fund managers, insurers and professional services providers. They also help support London’s role as a global financial centre by linking international investors with the UK’s deep capital markets, legal expertise and commercial infrastructure.
Direct benefits for the UK: The relationship between the CDOTs and the UK is mutually reinforcing. Combined UK services trade with the CDOTs was £29.2bn in 2024 – 3.5% of total UK services trade. Talent, firms, clients and transactions move between the CDOTs and the UK, with much of that activity feeding into London and other British financial and professional services centres.
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