Labuan, a federal territory of Malaysia off the coast of
Borneo, has been host to a growing financial services sector for
over 25 years. A sector that has continued to steadily and
assuredly grow despite the global economic turmoil of the last
decade, and that is carving itself an important niche in the Asian
Pacific financial market.
The Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan
IBFC) was established in 1990 as a route to economic growth. It was
envisaged as a centre that would complement the activities of the
domestic Malaysian financial market in Kuala Lumpur. The sector has
now become fundamental to the Labuan economy and hugely important
to Malaysia generally. As Malaysia enhances its trade and
investment linkages with the region and other parts of the world,
the financial services sector has a crucial role to play in
supporting the expansion of Malaysian corporations, intermediating
surplus funds from the region to productive investments,
