CM pitches Gibraltar’s ‘next phase of growth’ in final Guildhall address

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo urged investors on Monday to position themselves for Gibraltar’s next phase of growth, pointing to a tripling of GDP under both his administration and his predecessor’s as he delivered his final Gibraltar Day financial services lunch address.

Speaking at the Guildhall in London, Mr Picardo said the UK/EU treaty had delivered the certainty businesses had sought since the Brexit referendum, combining access to the UK services market with an agreement on goods and people with the EU.

He told guests that Gibraltar offered British businesses a unique combination of legal, regulatory and commercial advantages, with Europe on its doorstep and Africa nearby.

The address, Mr Picardo’s thirteenth at a Gibraltar Day lunch since taking office in 2011, looked back at the political and economic uncertainty faced by Gibraltar during his tenure while encouraging investors to consider the opportunities ahead.

Mr Picardo recalled that David Cameron had been UK Prime Minister when he first became Chief Minister, and that in his time in office there had been a total of seven premiers in the UK, “one outlasted by a lettuce”.

Despite successive years of uncertainty, Gibraltar’s economy had tripled in size since 2011, matching the growth achieved under former Chief Minister Sir Peter Caruana, who was among those attending the lunch.

During Sir Peter’s 15 years in office GDP had risen from about £350m to £1.1bn, and Mr Picardo confessed he had felt the pressure on being elected.

“I remember thinking to myself, how on earth am I going to triple 1.1bn?” he said.

“He’s got me on that one. I’ll never match him on that.”

Now preparing to leave office at the end of the year, Mr Picardo used that comparison to make his pitch to businesses considering Gibraltar.

“Can you afford not to be in Gibraltar if you’re not already there, if Gibraltar is about to start another period of tripling its GDP?” he asked.

The Chief Minister said public revenue had followed a similar trajectory, rising under Sir Peter from £100m to just over £300m, before increasing again to more than £900m under his administration.

He also highlighted the scale of Gibraltar’s financial services and gaming sectors, saying its insurers wrote a third of UK policies and its gaming industry took two-thirds of UK bets.

Mr Picardo said Gibraltar followed two golden rules.

“We never spend more than we can collect, and we triple the size of our economy every 15 years,” he said.

“My successor can feel the pressure already.”

But his central message was that the treaty had changed the conditions in which businesses could plan their future.

Mr Picardo recalled that, at every financial services lunch since the 2016 referendum, he had faced questions about what Brexit would mean for Gibraltar, joking that his assurances that certainty was coming began to sound like a Gibraltarian way of saying “mañana”.

“Well, certainty is here now,” he added.

Mr Picardo pointed to the signing of the treaty in Brussels on July 14, the removal of the physical frontier and immigration controls at the land border, and the Gibraltar Parliament’s unanimous endorsement of the agreement.

He said the treaty provided lasting legal certainty while protecting 16,000 cross-frontier workers, representing almost half Gibraltar’s workforce, and the millions of visitors who contributed to public revenue.

“And all of that without conceding anything in respect of sovereignty,” he said.

“The perfect ingredients to alchemise Brexit into something positive.”

Mr Picardo challenged his audience to identify another place in continental Europe offering the same combination of English common law, with final appeals to the UK’s Privy Council, English as the language of business and sterling as its currency.

He also cited regulation aligned with the UK, access to the UK services market and the absence of a physical frontier with the Schengen area.

“Gibraltar is the only place where British businesses can sit under British law with an open Europe on the doorstep and Africa on the near horizon,” he said.

Mr Picardo said insurers came for stability, fund managers for speed to market and fintech founders for accessible regulators, while family offices were attracted by “the safety, the security, the sun and the schools”.

He highlighted Gibraltar’s early development of a bespoke regulatory framework for distributed ledger technology – the value of which was underscored by Revolut’s announcement on Monday that it was setting up in Gibraltar for its crypto expansion - and described the Gibraltar Authorisation Regime as a “London Bridge” supporting the Rock’s relationship with the UK market.

Mr Picardo was introduced by former Minister for Financial Services and Gaming, Albert Isola, who spoke highly of the Chief Minister and his government’s achievements despite challenging years in office.

FEETHAM
The Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, Nigel Feetham, also addressed the Guildhall lunch and said Gibraltar’s international outreach was attracting new business and enabling new relationships that could help Gibraltar-licensed companies enter overseas markets.

But he stressed that diversification must protect the reputation that gave those businesses credibility internationally, maintaining strong regulation while pursuing new opportunities.

Mr Feetham said his ministry had taken Gibraltar’s offering to Barcelona, Hong Kong, El Salvador, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Mexico and Canada over the past year, meeting governments, businesses, investors, regulators and entrepreneurs.

Those discussions involved both explaining Gibraltar’s offering and listening to what others could offer.

“We cannot simply wait for opportunities to find Gibraltar,” he said.

“We have to go out and find them.”

Every international conference or overseas engagement under the current programme had resulted either in a new licensee coming to Gibraltar or a business progressing towards a prospective licence application, Mr Fetham said.

The programme was also building relationships with governments and regulators, with opportunities for future collaboration being explored.

People first encountered thousands of miles from Gibraltar were now attending the lunch in London, including businesses considering setting up on the Rock, others that were already established and contacts promoting it through their own international networks.

Mr Feetham said opportunities were emerging in tokenisation, digital finance, stablecoins, prediction markets and new technologies.

“A Gibraltar licence means something internationally,” he said.

“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.”

Protecting that reputation required Gibraltar to maintain the balance between adaptability and rigorous supervision.

“Gibraltar has always been nimble and adaptable, but never at the expense of strong regulation,” Mr Feetham said.

“Our task is to maintain that balance in an increasingly competitive world.”

He identified Gibraltar’s concentration of professional expertise, accessible government and regulators, and cooperation with industry as strengths, highlighting too that retaining experienced people, planning for succession and developing young talent were also essential.

Mr Feetham linked diversification to the need for sustainable public revenue, pointing to the UK’s increases in gambling taxation as a reminder that no revenue stream could be taken for granted.

He said representations to the Treasury and parliamentarians had not secured the outcome Gibraltar wanted but stressed that gaming and established financial services remained fundamental to the Rock’s economy.

Corporate tax receipts had reached £252m in the year following the record £212m collected in 2024/25, he told guests, attributing the growth to compliance, enforcement and targeted measures alongside tax rates.

Mr Feetham stressed too that international outreach reinforced, rather than diminished, the importance of Gibraltar’s relationship with the UK, with London providing a meeting point for established and new contacts.

“We may not compete on scale, but we compete through our reputation, our people and our ability to build strong relationships across international markets,” he said.