🇰🇾 Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory of 68,000 people with a GDP of about $6.5 billion and the fifth-largest financial center in the world. Over 100,000 companies are registered here, and the islands hold about $2 trillion in deposits. Grand Cayman's Seven Mile Beach is one of the Caribbean's most famous stretches of sand. The territory has no direct taxation — no income tax, no corporate tax, no capital gains tax, no payroll tax. The Cayman Islands is the world's leading domicile for hedge funds and a major center for structured finance. Stingray City, where you can swim with wild stingrays in shallow water, is the territory's most popular tourist attraction.

Financial services (about 55% of GDP) and tourism (about 30%) are the pillars. The Cayman Islands is the world's largest domicile for investment funds, with about $8 trillion in fund assets. Over 40 of the world's 50 largest banks have operations here. Tourism brings in about 2.5 million visitors annually (mostly cruise passengers). The Cayman Islands dollar is pegged to the US dollar at a fixed rate of CI$1 = US$1.20. The cost of living is very high.

The Cayman Islands' blue iguana was once the most endangered lizard in the world — down to just 15 individuals in 2002. A breeding program has brought the population back to over 1,000. George Town's Ugland House at one point had 18,857 companies registered at a single address — Barack Obama famously called it "either the largest building in the world or the largest tax scam." The Cayman Trench, just south of the islands, is the deepest point in the Caribbean at 7,686 meters.

The Cayman Islands' financial services model is the most sophisticated in the Caribbean and deeply embedded in global finance. International tax reform is a headwind, but the territory has consistently adapted to regulatory changes. The model isn't going away — it's too useful to too many people.