General

​ The Guernsey Financial Services Commission is pleased to announce that William Mason will be appointed the Director General upon Nik van Leuven’s retirement. William Mason will join the Commission from the position of Head of Risk at the Central Bank of Ireland, where he has led the development and implementation of its PRISM supervisory methodology. Most recently he has been working with the...

On 27 February 2013 the States of Guernsey approved the Control of Borrowing (Repeal) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance, 2013. This Ordinance repeals the remaining provisions of the Control of Borrowing (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance, 1959. Accordingly, requests for consent under the 1959 Ordinance are no longer necessary and should not be made to the Commission.

The Commission has issued a letter to all Money Laundering Reporting Officers today regarding fraud warning versus southern Africa customers and Far East/China banks. More information can be found here .

As a result of The Foundations (Guernsey) Law, 2012 (“the Foundations Law”) coming into effect on 8 January 2013 and also The Regulation of Fiduciaries, Administration Businesses and Company Directors, etc. (Bailiwick of Guernsey) (Foundations Amendment) Regulations, 2012 (“the Foundation Amendment Regulations”) being made on 14 January 2013, various amendments in respect of Foundations related...

As part of its continuing commitment to ensuring that supervisory standards are up to date and appropriate, the Commission is preparing revisions to the regulations and rules governing anti-money laundering (AML) standards for financial services businesses ‘the Handbook’ and for prescribed businesses (firms of lawyers, accountants and estate agents). These revisions largely arise from the...

As the result of the implementation of Ernst & Young LLP’s review of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission two regulatory/supervisory functions are being centralised to improve efficiency and consistency. An Authorisations Unit and an Anti-Money Laundering Division have been established. Previously these were undertaken separately by and within each of the Divisions. Owners, directors and...

​ The Director General of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, Nik van Leuven, aged 65, will retire in June 2013. He was originally appointed under a contract expiring in December 2012, which has been extended to facilitate his successor to be appointed. Cees Schrauwers, the Chairman of the Commission, said: “We are grateful to Nik van Leuven for directing the GFSC during a period of...

​ The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) is proposing that Guernsey should not immediately follow the UK by introducing the proposals of the UK Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) Retail Distribution Review (RDR), but instead wait and see what happens in the UK and elsewhere. The RDR examined long-standing problems in the UK retail investment sector, particularly around professional...

​The Commission has updated the warranties on the Form REG, Form QIF and Form FTL to take into account the Commission’s Guidance Notes on Personal Questionnaires and Personal Declarations. In particular, the following warranty (varies slightly dependent on the application) has been inserted in the aforementioned forms, “I confirm that we, the proposed designated manager/administrator/principal...