Travers leads Cayman pack in most influential list

| 16/05/2011

(CNS): Although he stepped down as the chair of the local indsutry body, Cayman Finance, in February, Anthony Travers, the chair of the Cayman Islands Stock Excahnge and former partner with Maples and Calder, is still considered the most influential person in the Cayman Islands when it comes to the financial sector. In the list of 'The 500 most influential people in the world’s financial centres', published by Financial Centres International, Travers made it in at number 95, ahead of George McCarthy and Cindy Scotland, the chair and MD of CIMA, as well as the country’s premier and minister of finance.

However, McKeeva Bush is listed in 113th place, ahead of finance ministers from most of the world’s offshore financial centres, with the exception of Hong Kong, Singapore, Qatar and Luxembourg. McCarthy is listed at 240 and Scotland at 247. Other Caymanian based financial players on the list include Grant Stein, the Global Managing Partner of Walkers Global, who made the list at 214, and Henry Smith, Global Managing Partner at Maples and Calder, also makes the list at 294.

Richard Murphy, the founder and director of the Financial Secrecy Index and a long time critic of offshore centres such as Cayman, also made the list at 485.

Published by Financial Centres International, a monthly periodical covering developments in the world's financial centres, the inaugural ‘FCI 500’ is described as “a first insight into the people, the forces, and the institutions that are behind the unprecedented re-shaping of the global financial system,” in the wake of the credit crisis which started in 2007.

Top of the list is Mario Draghi, Governor of the Banca d'Italia, followed by Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury at the US Department of the Treasury, and at number three is Barney Frank, Congressman at the United States House of Representatives, who is followed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.

“This inaugural ‘FCI 500’ is not just another list of influential people,” FCI stated. “The top names in the FCI 500 reflect the position of those with global mandates, such as Mario Draghi, and the managing director of the IMF, as well as the biggest players in multinational financial services companies.”

The list is not, FCI stated, a list of the most influential people in world finance. “It is a list of the most influential in financial centres. The point is that, in the end finance is a network business operating through a network of independent jurisdictions. The 'FCI500', then is intended to recognise the key players in jurisdictions across the globe, and the key sectors and activities making up that list,” FCI added.

The list took almost two years to compile, publishers revealed, adding that they would continue to revise and renew the list going forward.

See more on list

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Category: Business

About the Author ()

Comments (5)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    Big Mac beat the head of CIMA by 130 places? Says it all

  2. Anonymous says:

    I suppose being the (attack dog) person for Cayman Finance has propelled him no doubt to prominence. Would he have achieved this anywhere else is the question? Only in Cayman we say!

    This Oxbridge fellas views on what is best for Caymanians does not jive with the needs and expectations of Cayman's indigenous people.

    Caymanians need to continue to press for maintenance of the term limit aka roll-over policy, as the large benefits are only accruing to people like Travers in the financial industry. We deserve more having built this place to start with.

  3. Michel Lemay says:

    Congratulations Mr. Travers. Those of us who have known you a long time never doubted this at all.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Dominique Strauss-Kahn the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund isfourth on this list?

    I guess he just fell through the bottom this weekend after being arrested in New York for attempted rape?