Guernsey Reviews Functioning Of FSC

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

12 December 2011

The Guernsey government has welcomed the publication of a report it commissioned Ernst and Young to produce, which identifies areas in which Guernsey could benefit from reforming the island's financial services regulator, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.

In summary, the report identifies that while the agency is generally seen to provide efficient and cost-effective oversight of the financial services sector, to keep pace with changing standards in light of the global financial crisis and increased scrutiny of offshore financial centres, the Commission has been required to invest more heavily in recent years in maintaining a robust regulatory regime.

Operational costs have trended upwards as a consequence, and Guernsey is now considering how to rationalize resource allocation to maintain a world-leading regulatory regime, which places a low burden on businesses, and is developed at minimal cost to the industry and government.

Guernsey Chief Minister, Lyndon Trott said:

“We welcome the report and believe it was a prudent time to undertake such a review. We would hope very much that the opportunity, as scoped out in the report, is fully seized, to reduce operating costs for the Commission and the day-to-day compliance and administrative burden on industry.”

“The States set out a very clear objective for the Commission's activities, which is the 'maintenance of an internationally-respected financial services regime, adopting and applying international standards' and that implementation of regulation should be 'effective but proportionate'."

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