Minister Feetham Addresses Gibraltar Day Financial Services Lunch In London
Minister Nigel Feetham addressed the annual Gibraltar Day in London Financial Services Lunch at the Guildhall yesterday, bringing together representatives from the financial services and gaming sectors.
A statement from the Government follows below:
The Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, the Hon Nigel Feetham KC MP, today addressed the annual Gibraltar Day in London Financial Services Lunch at the Guildhall in the City of London.
The event brought together representatives of the financial services and gaming sectors, business partners and friends of Gibraltar, providing an opportunity to renew longstanding relationships and welcome new business partners and contacts met through the Ministry’s international outreach programme.
In his address, Minister Feetham reaffirmed the importance of Gibraltar’s relationship with the United Kingdom and outlined the Government’s commitment to supporting established sectors while diversifying the economy. He highlighted the results of Gibraltar’s National Tax Strategy and the importance of maintaining sustainable revenues to support public services. He also emphasised the need to develop talent, protect Gibraltar’s regulatory reputation and build international relationships that create new opportunities.
The lunch marked the start of a three-day financial services programme, with Funds and Private Client events on Tuesday 20 October, followed by Insurance and New Technologies events on Wednesday 21 October.
The full text of Minister Feetham’s address is attached:
Chief Minister, Your Excellency, My Lords, Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to our annual Financial Services Lunch here in the heart of the City of London.
It is a real pleasure to be with you today, and to see so many familiar faces, as well as many new ones.
Gibraltar Day is always an important occasion for us. It gives us an opportunity to celebrate the historic and enduring relationship between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom, and particularly the commercial and professional relationships we have built over many decades with the City of London.
Those relationships remain enormously important to Gibraltar.
Many of you in this room have been part of Gibraltar’s story for many years. You have invested in Gibraltar, done business from Gibraltar, advised Gibraltar businesses and supported our financial services and gaming communities.
I want to begin by thanking you for the confidence you continue to place in us.
But Gibraltar Day is not only about celebrating the relationships we have built.
It is also about looking ahead.
And, of course, strong relationships matter just as much when circumstances are challenging.
Over the past year, I have spent considerable time here in the United Kingdom making Gibraltar’s case in relation to the increases in gambling taxation.
I engaged with HM Treasury and with parliamentarians at Westminster.
We worked closely with industry, and we made the case as clearly and robustly as we could about the potential consequences for Gibraltar.
Ultimately, the decision taken was not the outcome we had hoped for.
But mature relationships allow you to disagree, to make your case robustly and, when decisions do not go your way, to respond constructively.
This has reinforced something that was already central to our economic strategy: the need to continue to strengthen, as well as diversify, Gibraltar’s economy.
That does not mean turning away from the United Kingdom.
And it certainly does not mean turning away from gaming.
Our gaming sector remains a fundamental pillar of Gibraltar’s economy.
The same is true of our established financial services sectors.
These industries have created employment, developed talent and helped build Gibraltar’s international reputation.
We will continue to support them in every way possible.
But strengthening and diversifying our economy is only part of the equation.
Economic resilience is also about ensuring that the economic activity we generate translates into sustainable revenues for Gibraltar.
You cannot run a country, and you cannot sustain the quality of public services that people rightly expect, without the revenues to support them.
Many of you will have heard me talk about Gibraltar’s National Tax Strategy, a strategy I devised even before I was elected to office.
At its heart, it was about matching our level of ambition with the revenues necessary to deliver it.
It was about delivering the results of the last three years without destabilising our economy.
And, I have to say, it was also about many sleepless nights, because I understood the real consequences of getting it wrong.
But the results speak for themselves.
In 2024/25, Gibraltar collected £212 million in corporate tax, a record, and an increase of almost 40% on the previous year.
Then, in the year that followed, corporate tax receipts reached £252 million, almost 65% above the baseline figure I inherited.
These are extraordinary results.
And they were achieved not simply by raising rates, but through better compliance, better enforcement, carefully targeted tax measures, and making sure that businesses benefiting from Gibraltar’s regulatory and economic environment contribute a fair share to the community.
That additional revenue matters because it supports the public services that our community rightly expects Government to provide.
But we also know that we cannot take any revenue stream for granted.
The changes to gambling taxation in the United Kingdom are a timely reminder of precisely that.
Our response is not to stand still. It is to continue diversifying our sources of revenue and building greater resilience into our public finances.
Because there is an important economic lesson here: taxation is not simply about setting a rate and expecting the revenue to follow.
If you tax an activity beyond the point at which it can sustainably bear that burden, you can reduce the underlying economic activity and, ultimately, reduce the tax base itself.
That is the lesson of the Laffer Curve which I have often repeated, and it is particularly relevant to what we are now seeing in the gaming sector.
For Gibraltar, therefore, the objective must be to generate the revenues we need while protecting the economic activity, investment and employment on which those revenues ultimately depend.
And that is why diversification matters.
Diversification means building on what has been established.
It means broadening our economic base, strengthening our resilience and ensuring that Gibraltar continues to create new opportunities alongside the sectors that have served us so well.
That is why my Ministry has pursued an active international outreach programme.
Over the past year, we have taken Gibraltar to Barcelona, Hong Kong, El Salvador, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere.
We have sat down with governments, businesses, investors, regulators, policymakers and entrepreneurs and spoken directly to them about what Gibraltar has to offer.
We have also listened to what they have to offer. The reasoning is simple.
We cannot simply wait for opportunities to find Gibraltar.
We have to go out and find them.
And those conversations are producing results.
Every international conference or overseas engagement undertaken as part of our current outreach programme has resulted either in a new licensee coming to Gibraltar or in a business progressing towards a prospective licence application.
But there is another result which is perhaps harder to measure.
We are building relationships.
And some of those relationships are represented in this room today.
People we first met thousands of miles from Gibraltar are now part of our conversations here in London.
Some are considering Gibraltar.
Some have already chosen Gibraltar.
And others are helping us tell Gibraltar’s story within their own international networks.
We have also built relationships with other jurisdictions, at government and regulatory level, and are exploring opportunities for future collaboration.
This is how an ecosystem grows.
And Gibraltar has a very strong ecosystem.
We have an internationally respected regulatory environment.
We have experienced professionals across financial services, gaming, insurance, legal, accounting, professional services, digital finance and emerging technologies.
Government and regulators are accessible.
They sit around the same table with industry and understand that it is imperative that we work together to stay at the forefront as markets evolve.
Our size and agility give us an advantage.
The relationship between Government, regulators and industry gives us an advantage.
And we can turn our international outreach into an advantage.
We are already seeing opportunities emerge in areas such as tokenisation, digital finance, stablecoins, prediction markets and new technologies.
But innovation and diversification are not simply about attracting the next company or securing the next licence.
Ultimately, an economy is built by people.
And one of Gibraltar’s greatest strengths is its people.
The existence of an established ecosystem of experienced people and businesses is one of Gibraltar’s significant economic assets.
For a jurisdiction of our size, we have an extraordinary concentration of professional expertise.
We need to retain that talent.
We also need to ensure that we have the right succession planning in place to provide continuity and strong leadership for the future.
Developing talent is equally important.
We need our young people to see the opportunities that exist in Gibraltar, and we must nurture that talent.
Diversification is also about creating the next generation of opportunity.
But as we pursue that next generation of opportunity, there is something else we must protect.
As we look outward and embrace new opportunities, we must protect something that has taken Gibraltar decades to build: our reputation.
A Gibraltar licence means something internationally.
It provides credibility and demonstrates that a business has been through a serious regulatory process in a jurisdiction that values good governance and high standards.
For businesses looking to enter international markets, that credibility is important.
It can open doors.
We must be proud of that reputation, and we must protect it.
Gibraltar has always been nimble and adaptable, but never at the expense of strong regulation.
Our task is to maintain that balance in an increasingly competitive world.
And that brings me back to London.
Our international outreach does not diminish the importance of our relationship with the United Kingdom.
In many ways, it reinforces it.
London remains one of the world’s great financial centres and a natural meeting point for international business.
And today we see long-standing friends of Gibraltar alongside some of the newer relationships we have built internationally.
For a jurisdiction like ours, those connections are invaluable.
We may not compete on scale, but we compete through our reputation, our people and our ability to build strong relationships across international markets.
So today is an opportunity to celebrate the relationship between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom.
It is an opportunity to thank the businesses, professionals and friends who have supported Gibraltar over many years.
And it is an opportunity to welcome those who are becoming part of the next chapter of Gibraltar’s story.
Our challenge is to protect what we have built while having the confidence to build what comes next.
To support our established sectors while diversifying and strengthening our economy.
To develop our own talent while attracting investment and businesses from around the world.
And to ensure that Gibraltar continues not simply to respond to change, but to be part of shaping what comes next.
That, ultimately, is what economic resilience means.
Protecting the sectors that have served Gibraltar well, while building new ones alongside them.
Broadening our economic and revenue base. Protecting our public finances.
Developing our people.
Protecting our reputation.
And building relationships here in the United Kingdom and around the world that create opportunities for the future.
Our response to the challenges we face is therefore not to retreat from ambition, but to adapt.
And to work to ensure that Gibraltar continues to prosper and can reach new heights in the years ahead.
Why?
Because we continue to have the ambition, the determination and the confidence to make it happen.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being part of that journey.
And, most importantly, thank you for your continued confidence in Gibraltar.
Enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
