IMF To Review Jersey's Regulatory Regime In September

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

24 July 2002

The Jersey Evening Post has revealed that an IMF review of the jurisdiction's regulatory regime has been scheduled for September.

The reviews of offshore financial centres were commissioned in the late 1990s by the G7's Financial Stability Forum (FSF) following the collapse of the Asian economy.

Despite concluding that offshore jurisdictions had not been 'a major causal factor in the creation of systemic financial problems', the FSF revealed that they had featured in several of the crises which led to the Asian collapse, and therefore asked the International Monetary Fund to assess the regulatory regimes of the offshore financial centres (OFCs).

However, according to the Evening Post report, there is little concern within the Island's finance sector, as the placing of Jersey in the last batch of reviews (alongside Guernsey and the Isle of Man) already indicates that the jurisdiction is considered 'cooperative with a high quality of supervision'.

Speaking to the newspaper last week, Director-General of the Jersey Financial Services Commission, Richard Pratt confirmed this, observing that:

'I have no doubt that the IMF team will come up with some recommendations but I am confident that we will be seen in a favourable light.' He added that: 'Being placed in the first group (in terms of efficiency of regulation) is in itself recognition that Jersey is on the right track.'

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