MAURITIUS FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR
A DIVERSIFIED SECTOR
Global Business
Global Business remains the backbone of the Financial Services sector and Mauritius has forged a reputation for economic substance. The Global Business sector on the island offers convenience, fiscal efficiency and risk mitigation for companies engaged in international operations such as Foreign Direct Investment and Foreign Institutional Investment while leveraging growth and cross border activities.
The Global Business sector in Mauritius is providing sophisticated services like specialized collective investment schemes, investment dealership, close-ended funds and global collective investment schemes.
Insurance and Pensions
Insurance and pensions have a key role to play in the Mauritian economy, underpinned by a strong regulatory regime to ensure the smooth running of activities, with a focus on risk management and protection. Due to the pandemic, many operators are adopting online solutions that can be embraced fully by Insurtech to help engineer growth and reinvent the business model.
Securities
Investors are welcomed into a dynamic securities market which offers world class trading facilities. The Stock Exchange of Mauritius is one of the pioneers in sustainability in the African continent and is considered as the second largest market, offering dynamic debt and equity market, trading of fixed interest securities and equity through investment dealers. It has played an important part by opening its activities to debt securities, ETFs, Eurobonds and structured products, offering a range of possibilities to investors.
Investment Management
Mauritius is widely recognised by both fund managers and investors and is commonly used for structuring cross-border and international investments. It is an attractive domicile for investments because it offers a flexible and cost-effective regime within a robust and regulatory framework, political stability, a well-developed infrastructure, a beneficial time zone, the presence of wider ecosystem of banks and professional services firms and the availability of skilled professionals.
Banking
Mauritius has a strong and well-established banking system, with a mix of international and local players, offering a wide range of services encompassing cross-border corporate banking, international banking, private banking, trade finance and Islamic banking, among others. The banking sector in Mauritius is playing an increasing role in providing tailored solutions in regional and international markets.
Fintech
Mauritius is home to a thriving FinTech ecosystem, with new and innovative players coming into the market based on our forward-looking framework, and establishing operations in areas such as mobile payments, Security Token Trading systems, Regulatory Sandbox Licenses and Peer-to-Peer lending.
Other NBFIs
Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFI’s) also play a vital role for in the financial landscape in Mauritius. It involves those under the relevant acts (the Insurance Act, the Securities Act and the Private Pension Schemes Act).
Private Wealth
Private Wealth is a key area for growth of the Mauritius IFC, with a number of solutions available. Mauritius offers various options of succession planning mainly through trusts and foundations. Both legal forms allow for the creation of customised solutions that can accommodate diverse personal and business needs, ranging from succession planning to estate management. The Overseas Family Scheme was also introduced in 2016 and the licence caters for the domiciliation of High Net Worth Single-family offices and Multi-family offices, which can hold and manage international assets and funds. There are several advantages of such a scheme, including residency permits and tax holidays.