Following discussions between the IMF and the Commission at the end of last year, it has been agreed that the IMF will undertake its assessment of the Bailiwick of Guernsey late in 2009.  The IMF will make its decision on the dates of the assessment during the next few months when it considers its schedule for its next financial year – this will commence on 1 May 2009. 

In postponing the assessment, which was scheduled to take place this month, the IMF took into account the severe effects of the current global crisis, including the problems experienced at Northern Rock Guernsey and Landsbanki Guernsey. In addition, a later visit to the Bailiwick will offer an opportunity to gain perspective on the crisis, policy responses in Guernsey and elsewhere, and subsequent developments.

 

The areas to be covered by the assessment will be unchanged. A significant aspect will be to do with the stability of Guernsey’s financial sector. It will also cover banking, insurance and investment sector supervisory legislation and practice, together with anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing legislation and its implementation.

 

Peter Neville, Director General of the Commission said “The Commission is eager to participate in the IMF’s assessment process and looks forward to the broader perspective a later assessment will bring. For substantially more than a year we have been presented with significant challenges in crisis management.  We have met these challenges. The very positive findings of the inquiry by Michael Foot of the Promontory group into the role played by the Commission in the Landsbanki Guernsey case should stand Guernsey in good stead. We hope that one of the outcomes of the IMF’s future assessments will be the pulling together of the lessons learned by supervisors around the world during the crisis. Here in Guernsey the response has already included the introduction of a depositor compensation scheme. The hard look that Guernsey will be taking at the nature of its banking sector and the relationship between the financial industry in Guernsey and its counterparts in the UK will also be relevant to the IMF’s assessment. The IMF will want to gauge the effects of the financial crisis and the global economic downturn on the shape of the finance industry and the products and services it offers.”

 

Peter Neville

Director General

13 January 2009