“Ocorian operates in jurisdictions with a strong regulatory underpin, and Mauritius is one of them”

Chantal Free, Chief Executive Officer of Ocorian.

• “Our proposal is to partner with the EDB and the FSC to ensure that it is not only the view of the government and regulators, but also that of industry participants, who see Mauritius as a strong jurisdiction to promote to our clients”

• “There needs to be more explicit promotion of the expertise that is built here”

“Mauritius is where Ocorian’s heart beats,” said Chantal Free, Chief Executive Officer of Ocorian, during her latest visit to the island. In this exclusive interview with BIZWEEK, she underscores the central role of Mauritius in Ocorian’s global footprint, as a home to a third of its workforce, and a springboard for serving Africa and India. Drawing on her international experience, Chantal Free shares insights from a recent high-level roundtable with local stakeholders, discussing how Mauritius can maintain its relevance amid intensifying competition from IFCs such as the UAE and Singapore. She also highlights the need for regulatory agility, greater international visibility, and continued investment in talent, while reaffirming Ocorian’s confidence in the jurisdiction’s unique strengths and future potential.

Rudy Veeramundar 

We understand that this is not your first visit to Mauritius. What impressions do you have of the Mauritius IFC and the role it plays in Ocorian’s global footprint?

It is very important for us. We have around 600 people here now, and it’s a third of our global workforce. I’ve just had a Town Hall with my colleagues where I’ve said that, for a number of reasons, this is where Ocorian’s heart beats. First, because we have very strong local operations, and we definitely see Mauritius, and Ocorian-Mauritius, as the gateway to serve our clients both in Africa and in India. And that’s a very strong position.

We also run many of our global processes here. So, in Ocorian’s world, Mauritius is actually one of our prime locations, and one we rely more and more on. We rely on it because we have great talent here, talent with expertise, and talent which is multilingual and interested in growing. So, we export talent out of Mauritius to our other jurisdictions too. Many colleagues in our Middle East office actually came from our Mauritius operations, for example, and they’re doing an incredible job. Overall, it’s really a cornerstone of Ocorian’s world.

You spoke about the Town Hall on the future of IFCs. Can we have the key messages which came out of this session? 

We did a really good roundtable yesterday (Editor’s note: last Thursday) with many key industry players and veterans of the financial services industry, and promoters of the financial services of Mauritius. As you said, the purpose of that roundtable was to discuss the future of Mauritius as an IFC. I found it fascinating. I think part of it was really about making sure that we’re clear about the unique selling proposition of Mauritius. That’s clearly being the gateway to Africa and pretty much the gateway to India too. The conversation, then, was on how you maintain and enhance this proposition, in view of the competition from other IFCs. The landscape is evolving very quickly, and many of the financial centers are also making sure that they’re on the front foot. They are promoting their jurisdiction. Mauritius really needs to have a voice to say: “That’s why you should come to Mauritius.” It’s really important. We spoke about a few things to make sure that Mauritius maintains and continues to enhance that reputation.

We talked about the fundamentals with regard to tax stability. It’s important of course. There are some treaties that are hopefully about to be renewed, like the AGOA or the DTA with India. It’s important that Mauritius is able to maintain and renew these relationships. The value added comes from product development, making sure that the jurisdiction is creative and innovative with regard to its product service proposition, and continuously evolving that. We’re seeing other jurisdictions which are coming with the rule book on, for example, how you manage digital assets. Jurisdictions which are on the front foot have the right, transparent regulations on new services that investors are interested in.

We talked about the importance of making regulations. We clearly like Mauritius because it has a good, transparent, solid regulatory framework. It’s also important for IFCs to make sure that the implementation of these regulations is seamless and smooth. More and more, we’re seeing technology being part of that smooth process, where authorizations can happen smoothly and fast.

The last bit is really about having a loud voice to promote it around the world. What I’m seeing with many similar IFCs, at the moment, is that they’re really paying attention to going around the world to promote the proposition. They’re doing it in partnership with the industry and with the financial services that are the bedrock of that industry.

“Mauritius is actually one of our prime locations, and one we rely more and more on.”

So, our proposal is to partner with the EDB and the FSC to ensure that it is not only the view of the government and regulators, but also that of industry participants, who see Mauritius as a strong jurisdiction to promote to our clients.

You spoke about maintaining and enhancing our reputation. From the enhancing perspective, what advice would you give Mauritius to pave the way forward? 

I think Mauritius will be on the front foot if they continue being the gateway to Africa and India. There is competition from places like the Middle East, where Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the UAE are emerging as very serious competition, particularly for Indian assets. Singapore is a very strong competitor. But again, I think Mauritius has worked with Africa and India for a very long period of time. Mauritius understands how business works in the region. They have very strong connections and links. I don’t think that that expertise can be easily replicated. I suspect that there needs to be more explicit promotion of the expertise that is built here.

You referred to having a loud voice on the international front…

You can’t shout out if you don’t have real value. You need to be very clear about the value that you add. Then you need to be able to talk to people about it. You can’t assume, these days, that people just know. I think it is quite important to create connections, work with partnerships and create visibility on different platforms. It’s absolutely necessary.

What are your strategic priorities for Ocorian globally?

We’re trying to be a premier global asset servicing business. When I say asset servicing, we service asset managers and asset owners, who tend to be either corporates or private clients. Asset managers tend to be fund managers, private equity, infrastructure, funds, etc. We are trying to make sure that either one of these parties take care of what they do best, and that is typically investment and everything with regard to servicing those assets, to where they are domiciled, their fiduciary responsibilities, regulatory compliance, as well as things like accounting and administration. That is kind of our business. What we want to do is to make sure that for the large and complex clients, we do that consistently around the world. And when someone asks, “I’ve got this large infrastructure fund that I want to set out in Africa or wherever, underpinned by multiple family offices. Who should I go to?” Ocorian’s name needs to be there.

If they decide to domicile their fund in Mauritius, Luxembourg, Jersey or the Cayman Islands, we will do it for them. We’ll be able to service global asset owners or managers with their needs around the world. It is our ambition to be one of those few premier firms who can service them consistently around the world.

For us to get there, one of the things that we’re focusing on is client centricity. We need to make sure that we hear and understand our clients, their needs, and that we develop products and propositions that fit those needs. Secondly, we need to make sure that we make their lives really easy, and that means deploying technology that we can onboard quickly, in a seamless way, making all their transactions quick. The icing on the cake is that they really like working with us. Yes, we can run a lot of things digitally, but actually, our differentiator is the service and the connection that our people have with our clients. We are trying to build a culturally client-centric organization where we have the best people who are truly interested in what our clients do and how we can make them more successful.

You spoke about digital transformation. There are quite a number of regulatory shifts. The OECD and FATF are getting tougher. There is also the increasing importance of ESG. How are you navigating all this?

It’s a good question. My answer to that is, frankly, regulations and compliance is what makes me sleep well at night. In the sense that, yes, the framework is getting more and more complex, but it’s there to keep our clients and our business safe. When we start from that point of view, we have a positive attitude to the question of how we can make sure we use that to our best advantage. What I’m seeing is that our regulators are working more and more together now. That’s a good development, because globally, regulators are aligning on the principles and what is important. It is good for business and regulators are more and more aligned with regard to that principle. That does help us. It makes us have global policies and global processes in order to manage that.

“Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the UAE are emerging as very serious competition”

Is it not a cost? Absolutely, it is. We’re trying to make sure that through digitization, we try to make that cost lower for our clients and for ourselves. ESG is one of those things whereby, when you first start working with it, you go, “Oh my gosh, there’s so much more requirement to report!” But actually, these are stuff that are good for business. I know that in our own business, we made enormous progress with regard to our carbon footprint. We made enormous progress on the paper we use, the electricity we use, etc. Yes, requirements for business and the cost of doing business are increasing, but we try to take the positives and we try to reduce the cost of doing business through technology.

Some jurisdictions have been portrayed as laundering machines more than anything else. According to your experience, are all these regulations effective in combating illicit money?

I believe they are. We don’t operate in all offshore jurisdictions. We operate in the ones where we feel there is a strong regulatory underpin, and Mauritius is one of them. This is important. I do believe that there is a good general understanding of what good regulation looks like. I’ve been in regulated industries for a very long period of time, and I do think that the culture has very significantly changed. I remember when KYC was put in place, and at the beginning, it was seen as so many new processes, so much more costs, and the question being asked was, “How do I go around it?” This has very significantly changed. There is a belief that this is actually good for business, and it protects investment. So the short answer is that I believe that the regulation does work.

How do you assess the international environment?

It’s an uncertain and volatile environment, and investors don’t like volatility and uncertainty. My wish is for a clearer view ahead. A lot of us were hoping that this year, inflation and interest rates would go down, leading to a positive environment for business, creating more opportunities for people, income, wealth and economic growth. My wish is that that uncertainty and volatility calms down so that we can focus on growing the economies in which we operate.

What are you taking away from this mission in Mauritius?

There are two elements to it. I believe that we must talk more about Mauritius as a jurisdiction. We must talk more about why our different clients globally should consider Mauritius as a preferred jurisdiction. I had a conversation with our colleagues here, and they were saying to our colleagues in Asia that they should be considering recommending Mauritius more to our clients. As you know, out of sight, out of mind… I encourage my own colleagues to reach out to our colleagues in Asia or in the Middle East to remind them, on a regular basis, that Mauritius is a good jurisdiction. It’s a stable jurisdiction with a good legal regulatory underpin that works really well for certain types of investment. Mauritius shouldn’t beat itself up about all the things that might have gone wrong, or might not be great. There’s so much expertise, experience, and differentiation here. Mauritius is a jurisdiction where all the participants, like ourselves, should make sure that we feel comfortable with it, and that we talk to the world about it.

From a personal perspective, what are you bringing back home from Mauritius?

It’s the enthusiasm and professionalism of our colleagues. What we’ve created here is quite unique. We’re almost 600 people, and we started with around 150 people. After three-four years, we are at this stage. A lot of our best practices actually happen here. We have our technology expertise here, and a lot of the global processes. I think our colleagues, here, really care. So I’ve taken a whole list of things that I’ve heard from the meetings I had here. There is a lot more that we need to promote about the great things that we’re doing here.

You had the opportunity to have a Town Hall. You now have the opportunity to speak to the jurisdiction through BIZWEEK. What is your message?

Have confidence. This is a really strong jurisdiction.