Isle Of Man To Address IMF Concerns Over Independence Of FSC
by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London
04 December 2003

Isle of Man Treasury Minister, Allan Bell has said that the government will deal with issues raised in the recent IMF report with regard to the independence of the island’s financial regulators within the next six months.

Whilst the report gave a clean bill of health to the jurisdiction’s financial system, concluding that it “complies well” with international standards, the IMF identified a number of potential “shortcomings” concerning the accountability of the Financial Supervision Commission and the Insurance and Pensions Authority.

In particular, the IMF questioned the influence that government has over the FCS and IPA on matters of policy and decisions relating to licensing and inspections. The report also noted that the FSC’s remit is not clearly set out in the relevant legislation, nor are the regulatory bodies required to produce an annual report.

“Both the FSC and the IPA are part of a general government annual business planning and budget process, and are subject to periodic examination by the government's internal audit department and by its independent external auditors. However, none of these processes provides effective public accountability,” stated the IMF report.

In addition, the IMF observed that the heads of the regulators were also members of the Tynwald, which it suggested “effectively make the FSC and the IPA departments of government”.

In response, Mr Bell said that the independence and accountability of the FSC and the IPA “have never been in doubt”, although he announced that the government was taking the IMF's concerns “very seriously,” according to an Isle of Man Online report.

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