You may have seen in the news last week that at least ten different businesses in Guernsey had been targeted by cyber attackers who had demanded a ransom to recover lost files (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-35563983). This is just one example of how hacking companies for their data is on the rise, and at the heart of every […]

The Commission has today published a short guide which explains what risk based supervision is and what it means for licensees. At its core, risk based supervision accepts the premise that resources are finite, that there is no unlimited pool of public or industry funding on which to draw and that every regulator has to […]

On 18 January 2016 the Commission decided to make as public statement under Section 11C of the Financial Services Commission Law and to impose under Section 11D of the Financial Services Commission Law financial penalties of£81,375.00 against the following £42,000 on Provident Trustees (Guernsey) Limited (“the Licensee”) and its directors as follows £18,375* on Mr […]

Strasbourg, 15.01.2016 – Council of Europe experts on money laundering and the financing of terrorism have urged the United Kingdom’s Crown Dependency of Guernsey to increase the penalties which can be applied to financial institutions in this area. Further progress is needed in the number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions concerning money laundering and the […]

MONEYVAL – the wait is over for Guernsey!!! The report on the 4th assessment visit of Guernsey by MoneyVal was published on Friday 15th January. Full 322 page Report here – http://bit.ly/1QhsPDl executive summary here – http://bit.ly/1OuGSkj Guernsey was found to be compliant or largely compliant with all but one of the 40 FATF recommendations and the […]

The report on the 4th assessment visit of Guernsey by Moneyval was published today (executive summary here). Generally the report is excellent news for Guernsey (and justifiably so). Guernsey was found to be compliant or largely compliant with all but one of the 40 FATF recommendations and the nine special recommendations; the exception being in […]

In its final seminar of the year, the Guernsey Association of Compliance Officers (GACO) welcomed the newly-appointed Principal Ombudsman and Chief Executive of Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman (CIFO), Douglas Melville, to discuss his role and how the organisation will interact with financial service businesses in Guernsey. GACO chairman and Carey Olsen partner, Mark Dunster, said […]

The Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman (“CIFO”), or to give it its full title, the Office of the Financial Services Ombudsman will open for business on 16 November 2015. Below is a brief overview on the WHAT, WHO, WHERE, WHEN, HOWS of the CIFO and how it may affect Channel Island financial services businesses. WHAT IS […]