Last year, Jersey’s finance sector let out a collective sigh of relief when the island was given a positive “health check” on its handling of financial crime – though some sticking points remained. Express caught up with the JFSC’s Director-General, Jill Britton, to find out how its work has changed in the past months, and how the finance sector will be regulated in future…

In the summer, Jersey got a mostly-positive result in its assessment by Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s body to combat financial crime, money-laundering and terrorist financing.

“A passport for doing business”

The score serves as “a passport for doing business”, Mrs Britton explained, adding that the result was the highest any jurisdiction had ever got.

“It shows our credibility, it shows our quality.”

In light of the report, she said, a number of businesses had shown interest in the island.

“We saw, particularly at the towards the latter end of last year, a number of companies coming into Jersey from a variety of different jurisdictions, which was positive.”

Despite the positive overall view, the report did characterise Jersey as soft on prosecutions and fines, and that the ones that were being brought to court were around simpler cases – though it noted that more complex cases were being investigated.

But the regulator’s standards are about right, according to Mrs Britton.

She explained the JFSC was “not an enforcement-led regulator” and that it had only acquired some of its powers – like imposing fines – halfway through the five-year period the assessment covered.

“Enforcement is a tool, and it’s a tool that is absolutely right for any regulator to have, because there has to be a consequence to be able to have confidence and integrity in your system,” Mrs Britton said.

“But it’s used only when it’s appropriate to use, and it’s usually used as one of our last resorts, but it serves a purpose. There’s no intention for us to change our approach or our thresholds.”

Equally, she said, the threshold to take cases to the island’s prosecutor won’t change.

“Where we come across criminal breaches, we have a responsibility to make a referral to the Attorney-General. For us, that remains the case. Our position hasn’t changed under which circumstances we bring about referrals to the attorney general.”

Cases are often complex, involve several different jurisdictions and can take years before being prosecuted, she said.

The JFSC currently asks finance bosses to self-declare their backgrounds, rather than requiring official criminal background checks from senior staff.

Moneyval commission asked Jersey to change that – leading to a recent consultation by the watchdog.

Tackling greenwashing

Another area the regulator has been consulting its members on more recently is greenwashing.

Last month, it launched a survey to find out how it should tackle sustainability disclosures.

“Principles-based anti-green washing measures” already exist, but Jersey’s ambition is to be “one of the first international finance centres to adopt a robust and proportionate disclosure framework, aligned to internationally recognised sustainability disclosure standards”, the organisation said.

A sustainability policy framework was launched in conjunction with the government last year, but the island is also watching the different standards applied in Europe, the UK and the US.

Jersey follows international trends – with the first-ever greenwashing sanction imposed by a Dutch court against the airline KLM in March 2024.

Mrs Britton said: “The purpose of the [survey] was to say, rather than imposing a particular framework and standard at this stage on the industry, actually, what are people already using? What’s already out there? Does our framework need to be sufficiently flexible to allow businesses to adopt a framework that’s right for them, depending on where they do business and the kind of business that they do?

“We’re in a bit of a fact-finding stage at the moment.”

Currently, the JFSC focuses on disclosures, making sure that advertisements match the reality, using site examinations and inspections as part of their tools “to make sure there is truth and they’re not misleading clients”.

Asked if anti-sustainability moves from the US could drag Jersey’s standards down, she said Jersey “has to decide what’s right for Jersey in terms of the standards, and much of that is a government policy position.

“The government have been very clear in setting out a sustainability framework, and I think that therefore gives assurance around the direction of travel for Jersey.

“It’s interesting because global standards do evolve and we need to be mindful of them, because a lot of our businesses do operate cross-border.”

Minding the skills gap

As many as 50 JFSC staff were involved in-person with the Moneyval committee’s visit in September 2023, when experts descended upon the Hotel de France, assessing Jersey’s rules and results, and grilling official bodies and businesses.

Those resources have now been “rebalanced” – though Mrs Britton notes that staffing and ensuring the organisation has the right skills mix remains an areas of focus.

Sectors across the island have been hit by the “bean drain” – with the population of residents in their 20s and 30s declining by 7% between 2017 and 2023.

It’s a issue that has led the JFSC to change its focus when it comes to recruitment and retention, with a desire to help grow its own staff. It currently sponsors two University College Jersey students annually, who work four days a week and study on the fifth.

But it’s been recognised that part of the solution may lie beyond the island.

A green paper last year collected ideas for the future – including the suggestion that the requirement for some compliance resources to be employed and resident in Jersey could change to reduce pressure on the industry, Mrs Britton explained.

A new Head of Innovation, Andrew Evans, recently joined the organisation.

According to Mrs Britton, he is tasked with asking: “How do we upskill internally? How do we support industry in the adoption of technology solutions and upskilling? How do we work with key stakeholders such as Digital Jersey to be able to develop the education and skillsets that are needed at the island level?”

Meet ‘Reggie’…

More recently, AI has started to be used to drive efficiency and free up existing staff time.

The JFSC launched its in-house AI system, Reggie, last year, which Mrs Britton said would help with routine tasks and to search guidance.

Using AI means that some applications – like Jersey private funds – go through an AI system which only sends it to humans if there is anything complex about the application.

“Now we’ve sort of dipped our own toes into the water. It gives us huge opportunities ourselves to keep on with that momentum,” Mrs Britton said.

“We’re an island nine by five, right? So there’s got to be a great opportunity to be a testbed for innovation, particularly in financial services.”

This, she added, can draw from where Jersey does well – good links between government, industry and the regulator – but this will need government, Digital Jersey and more to all play important roles.