Inside Labuan IBFC, the Malaysian centre built for cross-border finance

Cross-border finance is becoming more complex, not less.

Businesses operating across jurisdictions are dealing with tighter regulation and more pressure to demonstrate transparency across markets, raising the bar for the international financial centres they use.
This shift helps explain why global benchmarking is gaining more attention.

Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IBFC) entered the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) in 2025, debuting at 60th out of 120, and has...