The return, next month – pending the approval of Gibraltar’s Financial Services Commission – will mark the end of a 14-year absence from the Rock on the part of the Big Four accounting firm.
Under the deal with Baker Tilly, five of that company’s directors, along with its insurance and tax services staff, will move over to become a part of EY.
In all, some 40 people will make the move, an EY spokesperson said.
The new organisation will be led by Jose Julio Pisharello, who is currently Baker Tilly Gibraltar’s chairman. His title with the new EY entity in Gibraltar will be managing partner.
When it opens next month, the new EY Gibraltar office will extend the group’s global presence to 152 countries and territories worldwide, the company said in a statement.
Baker Tilly, which has been in Gibraltar for as long as Ernst & Young/EY has been absent, will continue to operate in Gibraltar, headed by its current managing director, Ian Colllinson, and some 25 remaining staff.
It will "continue to service those clients it retains, reviewing resources as and when appropriate", a Baker Tilly spokesperson said.
According to its website, Baker Tilly’s origins in Gibraltar actually date back to the 1920s, and it claims to be the jurisdiction’s oldest firm of chartered accountants.
Both firms will operate from separate suites of offices in Regal House, on Queensway Road in Gibraltar, near its junction with Europort Avenue.
‘Client demand’
Andy Baldwin, EY’s head of financial services for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, said Ernst & Young sought to return to Gibraltar, as EY, in response to “client demand”.
It left 14 years ago because Ernst & Young, back then, was "quite a different company" from what EY is now, and Gibraltar was also a "different market" than it is today.
“Gibraltar is becoming an important and growing market for insurance, asset management, private banking and gaming,” Baldwin said.
"Having a presence in Gibraltar [again] will allow us to better serve our existing clients, as well as provide opportunities for collaboration within our financial services business globally, especially the Americas.”
Tensions
Ernst & Young’s return to Gibraltar as EY takes place against a backdrop of heightened tensions between Gibraltar and Spain, which were sparked in late July by a row over an artificial reef being installed by Gibraltar in Gibraltar waters. Spain responded to the reef’s construction, which it said would impair the movement of Spanish fishermen’s boats, by introducing new and time-consuming border checks on traffic crossing into and out of Gibraltar, and threatening other measures.
Most recent incidents include an uproar over the Facebook posting, by a Spanish local politician, of an image which showed Spanish troops invading Gibraltar, complete with a Spanish flag flying over the Rock; and accusations by Gibraltar that Spain has taken to prohibiting building materials from crossing the border into the British Overseas Territory.
