The decision not to permit these types of UK pension schemes to be administered in the QFC is thought likely to come as a disappointment – if not exactly a huge surprise – to the three financial advisory firms currently regulated by the QFCRA, which are understood to be interested in handling such business. This is because it means that those of their clients wishing to transfer their UK pensions out of the UK will now have to take advice on them outside of the QFC, in order to move these pensions to a “third country” jurisdiction that is set up to receive such transfers.
Shaun Swan, associate director in the policy enforcement division of the QFCRA, said that the regulator had conducted a full review of QROPS over a period of many months, given that they are not currently permitted under the QFC regulatory framework.
During this time, HMRC’s apparent concerns about the potential for the schemes’ misuse had become increasingly evident, he added.
"Our sense was that the HMRC changes introduced last December, which saw hundreds of schemes in certain jurisdictions de-listed three months ago, introduced uncertainty about how the QROPS market in some financial centres may develop over the next couple of years," Swan told International Adviser.
"Moreover, in view of the potential volumes of business that would be involved in the QFC, relative to the amount of work involved for the industry and regulator in developing a QROPS pension regime, we took the strategic view that at this stage, considering our priorities, we are not going to amend the regulatory framework to bring QROPS business within our regulatory regime at this time."
He stressed that the QFCRA decision had no bearing on what may be done elsewhere in Qatar outside the QFC, which is specially designated area in Doha that was established in 2005 to attract international financial services businesses.
Outside the QFC, financial services regulation is overseen by the Qatar Central Bank.
Transfers of other kinds of pensions from outside of Qatar, such as QNUPS and the pensions of residents and citizens of other countries besides Britain, are also not currently provided for by the QFC’s regulatory framework, and Swan said the QFCRA has no plans at the moment to change this.
Executives from the three advisory companies operating in Qatar – Nexus, Guardian Wealth Management and IFS – did not respond to requests for comment.
