Investment

On 10 & 11 February 2020 representatives of the Policy & Resources Committee, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (“the Commission”) and the Financial Intelligence Service gave presentations on the Bailiwick’s National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing risks ("the NRA"). The Commission’s presentation covered the main money laundering and terrorist financing risks...

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...

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...

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...

Third Quarter 2019 Investment Funds The net asset value of total funds under management and administration has decreased in Sterling terms during the last quarter by £9.8 billion (-3.3%) to £286.1 billion. Over the past year, total net asset values increased by £6.1 billion (2.2%). Open-ended Schemes Within these totals, Guernsey domiciled open-ended funds increased over the quarter by £0.9...

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...

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...

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 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...