Fiduciary

In its efforts to provide greater regulatory clarity for industry, the Commission has today published new guidance aimed at providing additional clarification about Designated Custodians’ duties. This guidance sets out the standards of conduct that are expected of Designated Custodians when they act for Open-Ended Collective Investment Schemes and where the assets are held indirectly, for example...

Licensees and registrants are advised that the Commission is changing the way it distributes its annual license fee invoices, commencing with the 2021 annual fees which are due to be sent out next month. Generic email addresses for all regulated and registered entities have been prepared which will be used to send out the annual fee invoices for 2021. If you wish to check which email address the...

The States of Guernsey Annual Budget was published on Monday 16 November 2020 and can be found here . Within the Annual Budget it is proposed to make a change in respect of Gratuity Schemes and their treatment under section 40(nn) of the Income Tax (Guernsey) Law, 1975. The proposal would make a technical change to the exemption under section 40(nn) of the Income Tax (Guernsey) Law, 1975 to...

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 £500...

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 exposed...

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 January 2020. These...