A consultation has been launched to enable Jersey’s financial services industry to respond to proposals to extend the Jersey Financial Services Commission’s (JFSC) powers to impose fines on firms and individuals who fail to comply with Jersey’s anti-money laundering and terrorist financing controls (AML/CFT).
The draft amendments seek to expand the scope of the JFSC’s existing penalties regime, and would give the JFSC the powers to impose fines for breaches of the Money Laundering Order on:
- compliance officers and reporting officers in regulated businesses;
- senior management within regulated businesses; and
- designated non-financial businesses and professions (i.e. lawyers, estate agents, and accountants).
The Minister for External Relations and Financial Services, Senator Ian Gorst, said: “These proposed amendments would demonstrate Jersey’s long-term commitment to the global fight against financial crime. Their purpose is to introduce measures which can be seen already in other international finance centres and to create proportionality, and a greater deterrent, to breaching Jersey’s regulatory regime, all in line with international standards.
“I would ask those who will be affected to engage in the consultation, and to use the lunchtime briefing which is being run by Government and the JFSC on 21 July to find out more and to ask questions before formally responding.”
The JFSC’s Director of Enforcement, Kerry Petulla, said: “By extending the regime, Jersey will be in line with international standards and our finance industry will have a clearer understanding of the sanctions they will face for non-compliance.
“We will always seek to work with businesses and individuals to remediate any breaches and will only impose fines in the most serious of cases where we identify significant contraventions of our regulatory requirements. We will of course continue to apply a measured approach to any decisions we make to issue fines.”
The consultation, on amendments to the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998 and the Financial Services Commission (Financial Penalties) (Jersey) Order 2015, will run until 1 September. Details of how to submit a response can be found on gov.je/consultations.
Jersey Finance Limited will be collating an industry response, details of which can also be found on the consultation page.
In tandem with the Government of Jersey’s consultation, the JFSC is consulting on its Decision Making Process (DMP). Details of the JFSC’s consultation can be found on the JFSC website.
Government of Jersey News Release.