News Release - FT Reiterates Rock's Status As 'Benchmark' Jurisdiction

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Date Released: 11 March 1999

JUST over a year after the Financial Times referred to Gibraltar as a benchmark with "the highest standards of regulation" (FT 5.2.99), the paper again ascribes the term "benchmark jurisdiction" to the Rock.

The term 'benchmark' arises from comments made by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in an address to the British Dependent Territories Association in London on 4 February 1998. The FT said at the time:

"Spelling out the conclusions of his six-month review of Britain's relationship with these last remnants of empire, Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, told leaders of the DTA at a conference in London they would have to improve regulation of their offshore financial industries, on which several of the territories thrive."