Fiduciary

On the 20th day of August 2020 the Commission imposed a discretionary financial penalty of £14,000 on Deborah Anne Ellis and prohibited her from holding the position of director, controller, partner or manager for a period of 1 year and 5 months. The exemption set out in section 3(1)(g) of the Fiduciaries Law (which would otherwise permit Mrs Ellis to act as a director of not more than six…

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission has issued today two discussion papers seeking views from interested parties on proposals concerning rules to be made following the States of Deliberation’s approval of the Regulation of Fiduciaries, Administration Businesses and Company Directors, etc (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020 (the "2020 Fiduciaries Law") and the Protection of Investors…

The Commission today launches a consultation paper on proposals for increasing the licence fees paid by firms (please click here for a copy of the consultation paper).  The consultation period will close on Tuesday 15 September. The proposals are for an increase of 2.1% across all sectors, based upon Guernsey’s RPI, together with the introduction of a modest fee for fast track applications of…

The COVID 19 pandemic resulted in many licensees being unable to operate in their usual office environments. Entering Phase 5, a return to normal activity in the Bailiwick, has seen many licensees return to their offices but we are conscious that adoption of home working has accelerated.  Information security risks can increase with home working and therefore we are highlighting a non-exhaustive…

Over the last three months, various international supervisory bodies have reaffirmed the planned timelines for transition away from LIBOR to alternative reference rates, such as SONIA (Sterling Overnight Index Average) or SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate).  Firms should therefore continue to assume that they will be unable to rely on LIBOR being published beyond the end of 2021 and should…

The Financial Crime Risk Return for the reporting period 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 (the “Return”) will be available for completion on the Online Submissions Portal in July 2020. The submission deadline is 31 October 2020. Following the Commission's previous announcements, updates made to the 2020 Return include additional questions regarding the different classifications of politically…

The Commission has today, issued in final form, the revised Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing (“the Handbook”). The Commission has made these amendments, to the Handbook, in order to take into account the Bailiwick of Guernsey’s National Risk Assessment (“NRA”) on money laundering (“ML”) and the financing of terrorism (“FT”) which was published in…

On the 4 day of June 2020 the Commission imposed, on an agreed basis, a discretionary financial penalty (under section 11D of The Financial Services Commission (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1987) on Standard Chartered Trust (Guernsey) Limited of £140,000.  This was as a result of historical failures to meet the Minimum Criteria for Licensing in respect of Schedule 1 of The Regulation of…

The Commission’s Financial Crime Division is recommencing its routine financial crime inspections to firms with immediate effect.  Routine inspections were suspended on 19 March 2020 to enable firms to deal with the immediate operational  impact of the coronavirus lockdown. Financial Crime inspections are resuming now as the finance industry has demonstrated its resilience and firms have…

Following our announcement of 24 March 2020: https://www.gfsc.gg/news/article/commission-allows-more-time-firms-complete-key-financial-returns], the Commission has been pleased to note the resilience of the Bailiwick’s finance sector including the widespread ability to work from home effectively. This operational resilience, taken together with recent States of Guernsey announcements regarding…