A large delegation of Jersey business professionals gathered to hear a fascinating presentation on Thursday 20th June by former Director General of SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) William Hughes CBE, QPM. Bill has recently been appointed as an advisor to HSBC to combat the financial crime problems that has recently been reported.

Mr Hughes was invited to the Island by Comsure, a local risk advisory business specialising in Compliance, HR, Legal, and Business Intelligence.

Mr Hughes, who also previously worked at the helm of the National Crime Squad, captivated his 70 strong audience at the Radisson Blu Hotel with his presentation on serious organised crime as a transnational, global phenomenon. He delivered thought provoking discussion on money laundering, counter terrorist financing, asset recovery and suspicious activity reporting.

The audience heard about the vulnerability to serious organised crime in the Channel Islands and what Jersey’s financial services industry can do to prevent and detect this type of activity. The presentation also touched on how the rules of international commerce have changed and how governments are aggressively tracking those that may previously have not considered to cause problems.

William Hughes CBE, QPM, said:

‘The Channel Islands are part of the global financial situation whether they like it or not. It is no longer possible for any jurisdiction to work in isolation. It would be sensible for Jersey to start thinking about reinforcing its competitive advantage. Jersey needs to continue to trade on its good reputation as a secure finance centre. It has got to reinforce now that it is the good guy. You have a very good police organisation and regulatory structure here. For example Curtis Warren made the mistake of thinking the Channel Islands were nice and sleepy and he found out that that was not the case. But dealing with serious organised crime is not a task for law enforcement alone, the finance community have a very important role to play too.’

Mathew Beale, Managing Director of sponsors Comsure, said:

‘Comsure are very proud to have brought such a high calibre individual to speak to the Island. It was a rare opportunity for the Jersey business community to hear his thought leadership on combating money laundering and financing of terrorism and his presentation was enthusiastically received. The seminar aligned very well with our own concentrations at Comsure as we have diversified our offering to include business intelligence services. We hope to assist many local companies in meeting their regulatory obligations and in turn helping to combat serious organised crime.’

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