Investment

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 Guernsey Financial Services Commission has issued today a discussion paper making proposals aimed at ensuring that the Guernsey funds framework remains fit for purpose while helping to create opportunities for growth. Amongst other proposals to increase efficiency and clarity, the discussion paper proposes widening the formation options for Private Investment Funds. Commenting on the...

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...

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 generally...

On 29 May 2020, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, acting to protect the interests of investors and pursuant to powers granted to it under the Protection of Investors (Administration and Intervention) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance of 2008, made an application to the Court to have administrators appointed to Continent Worldwide Limited, a company licensed under the Protection of...