Jersey Consults Over New Codes Of Practice

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

01 August 2007

The Jersey Financial Services Commission has issued a Consultation Paper on proposed amendments to the Codes of Practice for four financial sectors: investment business; deposit-taking business; insurance business and trust company business. Of these, the most extensive amendments are proposed to the Investment Business Codes of Practice, as they have not been revised since 2001.

The proposals to amend the various Codes of Practice fall into four main types:

• those amendments identified as a result of the Commission’s self assessment of the Island’s regulatory framework against international regulatory standards, along with implementation of a number of recommendations set out in the 2003 IMF report;
• those amendments that are intended to maintain consistency between the Codes for the various financial sectors, as far as possible allowing for the differences in each sector;
• those amendments that aim to take account of changes in industry practice; and
• those amendments that aim to clarify areas of the Codes where the Commission’s experiences, through the on-site examination programme, has highlighted interpretation issues.

The Commission has been notified that the International Monetary Fund will carry out a second review of Jersey’s regulatory and supervisory framework in 2008. This review will examine in detail the extent of observance of Codes of Practice, so it is important that these Codes have been put in place before the assessment takes place.

The Consultation Paper raises a number of questions, and the Commission looks forward to receiving a full range of responses from industry. Responses should be submitted by 12 October 2007.

The consultation paper can be viewed on the Commission’s website www.jerseyfsc.org and paper copies obtained from the Commission’s reception area or the Jersey Library.

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