Company,
partnership and trust registrations in the Cayman Islands have taken a hit
during the financial crisis. In 2010, the Cayman Islands General Registry
listed 91,206 companies as active on its register. This number represented a
small decline of 1.8 per cent from 2009 and a 2.7 per cent decline from the
high (93,698) in 2008.
The
drop was not only due to companies becoming inactive as a consequence of the
economic situation but also the result of new registrations not returning to
pre-crisis levels. While new registrations of exempted companies averaged just
above 1,000 on a monthly basis during 2007 and the first six months of 2008,
the average monthly number of new registrations has been around 600 since May
2009.
A
similar trend can be observed for new registrations of partnerships and trusts.
When comparing average monthly registrations for the two-year period 2009-2010
to 2007-2008, registrations of new exempted companies dropped by 40.3 per cent,
new trust registrations fell by 42 per cent and new partnership registrations
were 35.1 per cent lower.
