GuernseyFinance Welcomes Fund Changes

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

28 June 2006

GuernseyFinance on Monday announced that it welcomes plans to dramatically change the legislation and regulation relating to investment and fund business in Guernsey.

The proposed changes include:

• The introduction of a new Prospectus Law covering the disclosure requirements for Guernsey investment funds and other local entities that are raising capital through the offering of securities;
• The placing of greater emphasis on the regulation of licensed service providers rather than individual investment funds;
• A new Funds Law to cover both open- and closed-ended investment funds; and
• Categorisation of funds into “regulated” and “registered” and streamlining the regulatory process by removing registered funds from that process

Peter Niven, the chief executive of GuernseyFinance, observed that:

“Guernsey’s fund business is at an all time high, with year-on-year growth in funds under management and administration of 47.4% to the end of March 2006. The timing of these recommendations could not be better to capitalise on this result and pave the way for further success.”

He continued:

“Guernsey’s growth in investment business had been partly down to an increasing appetite for alternatives, in particular fund of hedge funds, property funds and private equity funds. Guernsey had also attracted a number of alternative fund managers to relocate to the island in recent years. In addition, traditional sources of new business are continuing to come through very positively."

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