Gibraltar’s great and the good arrived in London earlier this month to talk about the territory’s unique relationship with the UK and how prepared it is for a post-Brexit world.

A senior Gibraltar government official would prefer that the British Overseas Territory stays in the European Union but believes that the jurisdiction is well placed to cope with Brexit, as and when the UK finally leaves.

The minister for digital and financial services, Albert Isola, told an audience in London last week that even though Gibraltar would rather stay in the EU and enjoy the best of both worlds, “the fact is 92 per cent of Gibraltar’s business is with the UK.”

Gibraltar has a population of about 35,000, and 90 per cent of them voted to remain in the EU. For all that, however, Isola said: “We feel we couldn’t be better placed despite every challenge Brexit has brought up.”

In September, after years of negotiation, Gibraltar finally signed a double tax agreement with the UK and has spent the last three years threading together a financial services bill that will provide smooth passage for those doing business across the EU, including continued passporting into the UK for funds and firms.

A major hurdle is getting a similar tax agreement reached with its dominant Spanish neighbour, and off Spain’s black list as a tax haven. “It is hard to find us on any OECD low-tax list, but with Spain, we are working hard there,” said Joey Imossi, director at trust and corporate services firm Fiduciary Group, and part of the delegation.

“We have moved the rate to 10 per cent for corporations and trusts. High net worths coming in get no cap[ital] gains, no inheritance tax, no wealth tax, and no tax on investment income, and from a family office perspective that is quite good,” Imossi said. The delegation also said that Gibraltar was picking up business from Caribbean offshore centres following tougher compliance rules on beneficial ownership; and private client work was receiving a boost from more HNWs moving to Spain and Portugal.

But the thrust of the two-day offensive was reserved for courting the UK’s booming fintech space, which has been a consistent bright spot in the Brexit malaise and, according to KPMG, made up roughly half of Europe’s top deal making last year.

Gibraltar more than most has been laying down policy since 2017 to encourage those developing services on distributed ledger technology, sometimes referred to as blockchain, to set up shop.

After creating a similarly friendly climate for online gaming to flourish, the centre has issued scores of licences to crypto businesses over the last few years. Among them are platforms such as Lendingblock and cryptocurrency exchanges such as CEX.IO and Bitso, as well as crypto futures and options exchanges which now operate from there.

The territory argues that a lack of clear regulation has been holding blockchain development back in Europe, and in some cases causing startups to fail. Reports have this at over 1,000 failed crypto projects last year. Marketing itself as the “first jurisdiction to develop a purpose-built regulatory framework” supporting DLT, Gibraltar has been swift to roll out the welcome mat, while larger territories have largely sat on the sidelines undecided about what good regulation looks like in the face of such a fast-moving and disruptive sector.

(Editor's note: It is interesting to see Gibraltar striving to take a sanguine view of Brexit. Before the June 2016 vote it appeared that local UK commentators and those on the continent seemed to be far more preoccupied with Gibraltar's future status if the UK left the EU than they were about the Northern Ireland border issue. As we know, the latter concern has actually dominated much of the debate. Gibraltar's situation, by contrast, appears not to have generated nearly as much heat. But it is still a matter to watch. With rival Mediterranean jurisdictions such as Malta, Monaco and Cyprus angling for business, Gibraltar's leaders cannot afford any complacency.)