Jersey Continues IMF Preparations

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

10 August 2007

The Jersey Financial Services Commission has published a consultation paper containing draft legislation that would make a number of amendments to the four Regulatory Laws that the Commission administers.

These laws are the Banking Business Law (Jersey) Law 1991, the Collective Investment Funds (Jersey) Law 1988, the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 and the Insurance Business Law (Jersey) Law 1996.

The amendments are being proposed in preparation for the forthcoming assessment by the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) of the Island’s regulatory framework. In the assessment, the Island’s regulatory framework will be assessed against the relevant international regulatory standards. The assessment will consider legislation, Codes of Practice, policy statements and guidance notes, the practical implementation of the framework by the Commission (and other relevant agencies) – including resources that are available, and input provided by industry.

The consultation paper covers proposed legislative changes in the following areas:

• Giving the Commission an express power to prevent individuals from working in the prudentially supervised finance sector;
• Extending the “principal person” regime to “key persons” such as compliance officers and money laundering reporting officers;
• The public disclosure by registered persons and by the Commission of licence conditions;
• The public disclosure by the Commission of the identity of senior management and investment employees of regulated investment businesses;
• Amendments to the “fit and proper” criteria for businesses and individuals;
• Additional provisions for appeals against administrative decisions;
• Changes to the statutory gateways that permit the Commission to release confidential information to third parties; and
• Amendments to ensure the Commission’s powers are consistent across the four Regulatory Laws.

A number of elements of the legislative process to implement the proposed amendments to the Regulatory Laws are outside of the Commission’s control. These include the need for a Ministerial Decision, States debate and approval of the amendments by the Privy Council. Nevertheless, to place itself in the position of being able to demonstrate practical application of the updated regulatory framework in time for the IMF visit, the FSC needs to finalise and submitt the amendments to the Minister for Economic Development by mid-September 2007.

For this reason, comments on the consultation paper are sought as soon as possible but by 3 September 2007 at the latest. 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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