Opalesque - Roundtable

Opalesque Roundtable Series - The Bahamas 2024

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 03:22:57 +0000

In the 2024 edition of the Opalesque Bahamas Roundtable, we bring together a panel of experts to discuss the latest developments, opportunities, and break-throughs in the global financial services industry:

Dr Iyandra Smith Bryan, Chief Operating Officer, Quantfury Trading Limited
Delphino Gilbert Cassar, Head of Business, Developm...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - The Bahamas 2023

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 04:42:05 +0000

On July 10th, 1973, The Bahamas achieved a historic milestone by transitioning from a 300-year-long colony to an Independent Nation. As the country commemorates its 50th anniversary of independence, this Roundtable conversation starts with an examination of the factors that have elevated it to the forefront as an international financial center.

"Already back in 1936, The Bahamas was at...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - The Bahamas 2022

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 19:32:54 +0000

The Bahamas&' Pioneering Legal Groundwork for Digital Assets Industry

Roundtable & Interactive Webinar with Christina R. Rolle, Executive Director, Securities Commission of The Bahamas

In a previous Opalesque Roundtable we examined how "tiny" Bahamas was able to beat global giants ...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - The Bahamas 2021

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 14:02:43 +0000
Since 2019, The Bahamas is the global leader in e-money when it launched its "sand dollar" - a digital version of the Bahamas Dollar and controlled by the central bank - effectively beating China&'s "digital renminbi" by six months. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has given the Sand Dollar the highest ranking - above even China&'s digital yuan - in a report ranking Central Bank di...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - Jersey 2021

Mon, 10 May 2021 13:52:16 +0000
Brexit, substance and transparency requirements, which have resulted in increased regulatory and reporting burden, and also increased cost and uncertainty, have put different jurisdictions to test in different ways over the past years. At the same time, we have seen jurisdictions blacklisted and gray-listed and more political uncertainty in general.
Sadly, blacklisting ends up having consequ...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - INNOVATION

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 11:45:35 +0000
The Great Disruption: Innovation, Digitization & Multiplicity of Value Systems
Welcome to Opalesque&'s 221st Roundtable - 18 million Roundtable PDFs distributed since 2008
Innovation in Fintech happens in many different areas, in things like payment systems, block chain, digital assets, robo-advisors, lenders, crowd funding, with a number of factors driving progress a...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - The Bahamas 2020

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 13:48:15 +0000
Well before the Second World War, The Bahamas was already seen as a desirable place for persons with wealth to come and live. The Bahamas&' financial services industry didn&'t come first: what really came first were those persons of mobile capital and being able to afford to live at a place of their choosing. Almost 100 years later, the country is very mature in having maintained and expanded its ...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - 2020 Investor Roundtable

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 10:31:29 +0000
The S&P 500 has now rallied +41% in ten weeks. This rally is greater in percent terms than the -36% plunge that took place in 5 weeks and has taken place during some of the worst reported economic data in US history.
Looking back, there are of course many differences to the other two big financial crises of the past 20 years, but one of the most striking to me is the increase in velocity. Article Link

Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2020

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 10:03:33 +0000
In the future, every stock, every bond, every currency, every commodity and more assets will be digitized and cryptographically secured on a blockchain. But, not only that: whoever is first to issue the digital currency has the chance to usurp the dollar as the global World Reserve Currency.
At the moment, only 8% of global trade is United States based, but a staggering 60% of global ...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - DIVERSITY

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 14:13:38 +0000
It&'s all about the data! But when it comes to diversity, the data is all there, but nobody acts on it. The asset management industry purports to be a meritocracy where companies, founders and investment managers that produce strong returns would (easily) attract additional capital, but the reality looks different. Despite an ever increasing pile of data and studies on overperformanc...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - European Private Equity & Venture Capital

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 09:18:51 +0000
Venture capital has enjoyed a compound annual growth rate of 17% for the past five years and is projected to reach $1 trillion, making up then about one-third the combined PE and VC assets globally.
However, this type of growth is not coming without challenges and disruptions as the startup ecosystem has changed significantly in recent years, with a lot more financing available. For sever...
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Opalesque Crypto Asset Pricing & Valuation Roundtable

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 11:45:17 +0000
Most insiders agree that the future growth of cryptocurrencies and digital assets largely depends on institutional adoption, and, of course, those type of investors must rely on fair value measurement of their assets. However, when it comes to cryptocurrencies and digital assets, most people would not think that valuation - defining their worth in an audit-able form - would be such a challenge....
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - The Bahamas 2019

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 13:23:06 +0000
Like many other on- and off-shore jurisdictions, The Bahamas financial services industry had to tackle many different regulatory and legal initiatives over the last few years. However, instead of just passively reacting to global regulatory pressure, the premier private wealth jurisdiction has also been able to pro-actively implement a number of highly successful regimes and solutions such as the ...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - North America Private Equity & Venture Capital

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 11:02:25 +0000
Private Equity AUM as a share of US GDP was 5% in 2002 and 17% in 2018 which gives rise to many questions and concerns: Is this already too big for the economy? What about valuations? Should we invest now or wait a bit?
Participants of this Roundtable believe that the PE class will continue to grow driven by institutional investors&' dilemma of how to get to a seven or eight percent ac...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - Asian Private Equity

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 13:41:30 +0000
With the completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in late 2018, the Greater Bay area around Hong Kong and the South Chinese economy are starting to see dramatic changes in terms of ability to innovate and creating a circular economy that rings the bay. In a region that&'s already incredibly fertile and driven, capital, ideas, people - 130 million or as many as in the six most populated US s...
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Opalesque Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Roundtable: Gulf

Sun, 07 Apr 2019 14:39:51 +0000
With the strategic vision to 'put Dubai 10 years ahead of the rest', the emirate aims to run 50% of government services on the blockchain by 2020. The UAE Central Bank and the Saudi Central Bank have recently agreed to pilot a cryptocurrency for cross-border payments. This is pretty significant and very positive for the region at a time where a lot of places compete to be the hotbed for cry...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - Cayman 2019

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 09:20:00 +0000
Many of the most successful businesses in the world operate on a highly outsourced model. After some initial skepticism, outsourcing has now also fully arrived in active fund management, with core management, IT and compliance functions outsourced to knowledgeable service providers. Hedge funds were early adopters of outsourcing (which can be charged back to investors) which is becoming more preva...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - ESG & Impact Investing

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 16:44:01 +0000
The emerging consensus is that ESG may have a slight plus when it comes to financial performance. But even assuming it's zero, the integration of ESG externalities is still worth doing. And so, as a consequence, the fundamental question is then actually changing from "Why?" to "Why not?".
However, apart from any debate, investors globally demand to invest according this new investment paradig...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2019

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 12:26:37 +0000
The credit crisis changed many things in the behavior of finance. For example, the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is now in question, together with many other things and theories that we learned when we went to school. 2018 was then the inflection point where Fed Put function of QE came to an end, and since then we have been moving to a different playbook. These changes have become very visib...
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Opalesque Roundtable Series - South Africa 2019

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:27:21 +0000
Since about 2014, many institutional investors have turned their attention toward private markets, and so over time the conversation has moved from, "There are not enough asset classes to generate a real return!" to a now pro-active "What else is outside the traditional box?" sentiment, and alternatives begin to stand out. These discussions have changed from a typ...
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