Our rules provide for an authorised firm to be established in the QFC as either an incorporated entity or a branch. While all firms need to meet the fitness and propriety criteria set out in the Financial Services Regulations and the General Rulebook, a branch application requires that certain additional criteria be addressed. 

Branch applications are assessed, in part, on the basis of a jurisdiction review of your firm’s home country (and the country from which the firm is proposing to branch in, if that is different). 

Jurisdiction reviews contain an analysis of the relevant jurisdiction’s compliance with the Basel Core Principles or IAIS Insurance Core Principles, as applicable, together with consideration of any findings from the latest International Monetary Fund and World Bank Financial Sector Assessment Program review and other resources. 

For more information on the assessment of branch applications, please click here.