Jersey Consults On Regulatory Fee Increase

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

30 July 2010

The Jersey Financial Services Commission on July 27 published a consultation paper setting out proposals for an increase in regulatory fees for deposit-taking business.

An overall increase of 7.4% in the tariff for annual registrations is proposed for 2011, payable in October 2010.

The proposals would amend Article 9(1) of the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991, which codifies rules surrounding the payment of fees to the Commission in respect of deposit-taking registrations. These fees were last revised in September 2009, for the year 2010, following a period of three years during which they remained constant.

According to the consultation paper, the fee increases are as a result of higher operational costs, and a projected fall in business activity during 2011. It has long been the policy of the Commission that each of the regulated business sectors is self-funding and, consequently, the regulatory fee income of each Supervision Division should cover its total allocated operating expenses.

It is not proposed to increase the application fee, which currently stands at GBP10,000. Neither is it proposed to change the policy of charging a reduced (50%) annual fee where a registration is for business continuity purposes only. Although fees for new registrations have not changed in recent years, the Commission has said it considers it inappropriate to increase costs for new applicants in the current climate.

The consultation will run until August 27, 2010.

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