News

​ 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 4 March the Commission issued: Instruction (Number 18) for Financial Services Businesses and Instruction (Number 16) for Prescribed Businesses For other Instructions and repealed Business from Sensitive Sources, see Instructions page on this website.

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.

​The Commission has noticed that in recent years there has been an increasing number of occurrences of fraud being committed against customers of Guernsey licensees where the customer is based in southern Africa. Post, and possibly emails, from licensees are being intercepted and details then being used by fraudsters. It has also been noted that fraudsters have increasingly directed the licensees...

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...

In advance of most of the changes to the AML/CFT framework referred to in our media release of 12 November 2012, the Commission has today amended Appendix C to the Handbook for Financial Services Businesses on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing and the Handbook for Legal Professionals, Accountants and Estate Agents on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing. A version of...

The Commission has noticed an increase in the incidents of genuine websites being cloned to support fraudsters in committing various types of scams. The offending sites have included clones of legitimate licensees and investment funds. Licensees are encouraged to regularly check that their websites have not been cloned in such a fashion. If a cloned site is discovered, please contact the...

In September 2011 the Commission issued the Finance Sector Code of Corporate Governance. The introduction states that from 2012 we will require an assurance statement from companies subject to the Code, confirming that the directors have considered the effectiveness of their corporate governance practices and are satisfied with their degree of compliance with the Principles set out in the Code or...