DIGEST: How effective is the watchdog? JFSC shares first public performance update

Jersey’s financial regulator has shared its very first quarterly service report.

“Service excellence” was a key feature of the Jersey Financial Services Commission’s business plan, so it had committed to publishing its performance to provide “transparency”.

This was, the JFSC said, in an effort to “support the competitiveness and growth of Jersey as an international finance centre”.

Express took a look at the report’s findings…

The performance of service level agreements (SLA) was assessed according to green, amber or red ratings.

A green rating applies to 90% or higher achievement of the SLA, amber to 70%-89% achievement and red to 69% and below.

Going for green: Areas the JFSC says it is doing well in

In its regulatory services, an objective was to ensure Jersey private funds applications were processed in 48 hours, of which 93.3% of 30 applications adhered to the SLA.

This is a significant improvement from Q1 2024, where just 59% of 29 applications were within the SLA.

Similar success was seen in its online forms for anti-money laundering providers. The SLA indicated they should be processed within five working days, and 93.1% of 130 applications met it.

In registry services, 94% of 136 name registration submissions were dealt with according to the SLA that new business names must registered within two working days, an improvement on an already strong figure of 91% for Q1 2024.

Almost there: Amber areas that missed out on green

Personal questionnaires are expected to be processed within 30 working days. Of 217 applications, 76.5% were within the SLA.

Though an improvement on 65.9% of 265 applications for the same period last year, it missed out on a green rating. The JFSC said some applications required further information from applicants or third parties, which could take longer than 30 days to complete, but “year-on-year processing time is improving”.

Incorporations and registration of new companies processed within an agreed timeframe, on average, performed to an amber rating – 70% of all 829 registrations submitted were processed within the SLA.

Pictured: The JFSC had committed to publishing its performance to provide “transparency”.

For two-day timeframes, 79% of submissions were processed according to the SLA, though a decline in performance from 87% for the same period last year.

78% of submissions required to be processed within three days met the SLA, a drop from 93% last year. 82% of submissions under the five-day timeframe met the benchmark, a slight decline from 85% for Q1 2024.

Areas that saw the lowest SLA performance, however, were the submissions that required processing in the shortest timeframes.

Red rating: Needs improvement

Red ratings were given for the performance of the SLA that indicated that submissions to incorporate and register new companies must be processed within “priority” timeframes.

For two-hour processing, just over half (57%) of submissions met the SLA requirements, a decline on 68% from the same period in 2024.

For one-day processing, 68% of submissions adhered to the SLA, a slight drop from the 71% seen the previous year.

Explaining the perceived decline in performance, the JFSC explained that in the first quarter of 2025, overall submission increased by over 17% for the same period in 2024, which had “impacted the ability to meet the different SLAs”.

It said: “In Q1 2025, over half of all submissions were sent via the two hours and one day priority tiers, which are only suitable for companies without high-risk factors – 16% of two-hour submissions were returned due to high risk factors being identified.

“The high rate of fast-track submissions had an impact on the other submissions, as the two-hour submissions are given priority,” it added.

Going forward…

The JFSC admitted that it “clearly still had work to do” to improve service levels in certain areas. It pledged to provide updates of improvements and continue engaging with the industry bodies.

The organisation also invited individuals to share their thoughts.

“Our next industry survey launches soon, and we encourage you to have your say so we can continue to prioritise changes and improvements that matter most to our stakeholders,” it said.