Survey reflects stability and positive long-term outlook for finance

Thursday 09 July 2015

Stability and a strong long-term outlook for Jersey’s finance industry are key messages to emerge from the latest Jersey Business Tendency Survey, according to Geoff Cook, CEO, Jersey Finance.

The majority of indicators for the finance industry in the survey were the same or similar to the previous quarter whilst eight of the ten indicators were positive.

The three-month snapshot of industry activity is included in the Jersey Business Tendency Survey published Wednesday (8^th July) for the quarter ending June 2015 by the States of Jersey Statistics Unit. 

Whilst the Employment indicator for the finance industry declined slightly, this was mitigated by an improvement in the Future Employment indicator, with 49% of companies in the sector anticipating increased employment by December 2015 compared with a year earlier. The accountancy and legal sub-sectors were the most positive.

The longer-term outlook for profits was also positive, with 45% of companies in the finance sector anticipating increased profits in 2015 compared with 2014, the legal and fund management sub-sectors being the most positive.

Meanwhile, a third of Jersey firms (34%) felt that the region with the greatest potential for developing key business referrers in 2015 was Asia, whilst the biggest issue for Jersey’s business environment was external financial regulations.

Geoff Cook said: “It’s always difficult to draw too many conclusions from a three month period alone, but the fact that attitudes within the industry are consistent with the last quarter reflects a welcome degree of stability.

“The fact that longer term projections relating to employment and profits are positive too is also extremely encouraging, particularly off the back of the recent Survey of Financial Institutions which revealed a jump in profits for the industry overall in 2014 and genuine optimism regarding employment opportunities. The general upward trend for activity across all sectors of the economy is clearly pleasing too.”