News

Insurance

Commission Issues Thematic Review on Insurer Cash Management and Control of Funds

6th February 2020
The Commission has issued its report on the thematic review of cash management and control of funds by licensed insurers. The review was undertaken during the latter part of 2019. A copy of the thematic review can be found by clicking here . Broadly, the thematic review uncovered a number of areas of good practice, for example in maintaining appropriate signatory lists and having adequate policies...

Guernsey Green Fund – EU Sustainability Taxonomy

31st January 2020
The Guernsey Financial Services Commission ("GFSC") was pleased to note the recent political agreement reached between the European Council and the European Parliament on an EU-wide classification system, or "Taxonomy", which will provide businesses and investors with a common language to identify what economic activities can be considered environmentally sustainable. The detailed criteria...

Changes to the Online Submissions ('OS') Portal & Personal Questionnaire ('PQ') Portal

16th December 2019
Form upgrades Further to our previous news article regarding the forthcoming changes to the forms on the OS and PQ Portals, the following forms are now available in the new format: 126a - Fiduciary - Pension Scheme or Gratuity Scheme Quarterly Return 132 - Insurance Manager Annual Return 145 - Investment Quarterly Return 200 - Other Notification 220 – Outsourcing 226 - Surrender Registration It...

Iceland

28th November 2019
The Commission has today removed Iceland from Appendix C (Equivalent Jurisdictions) of the Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing and issued an instruction for all specified business to ensure that full customer due diligence has been applied to all existing business relationships connected to Iceland by 31 January 2020. This action follows the Financial Action Task Force’s...

Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing

1st November 2019
The Commission has today issued, in final form, the revised Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing ("the Handbook"). The Commission has revised the Handbook, in order to allow firms to advance work on revising their business risk assessments and policies, procedures and controls to take account of the provisions of Schedule 3 and the rules and guidance in the Handbook...

Update on Revisions to Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Business Risk Assessments and Policies, Procedures and Controls

11th October 2019
The Commission has today issued proposals to amend the transitional rules in the Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing regarding the timeframes for firms to update their Business Risk Assessments and Policies, Procedures and Controls, which take into account the revised timeframe for the publication of the Bailiwick’s National Risk Assessment. There are no changes proposed...

2019 Financial Crime Risk Return Reminder

2nd October 2019
The Commission wishes to remind all financial services and prescribed businesses (with the exception of personal fiduciary licensees) that the Financial Crime Risk Return (“the Return”) is due for submission by 31 October 2019. The Return can be found through the Commission’s Online Submissions Portal, located here: https://submit.gfsc.gg/ Further information on the background to the Return, as...

The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)

25th September 2019
The Commission is pleased to announce that its application for membership of the NGFS has been accepted. Guernsey is the first island International Finance Centre to achieve membership of the NGFS in a move consistent with the international engagement element of Guernsey’s green finance strategy. The NGFS was established by eight central banks and supervisors following the "One Planet Summit" in...