“More banking job losses are likely” - Gorst

Tuesday 11 November 2014

The finance and digital industries have a new ministerial champion after the ministerial reshuffle – but the Chief Minister says that he expects more banking jobs to go in the next few years.

Senator Philip Ozouf is due to be named as an Assistant Minister responsible for the finance and digital sectors, and it has been reported that he will spend two days in London every week in the new role. Chief Minister Ian Gorst says that the job, which is likely to become a full ministerial position next year, was about taking a proactive approach to fighting to keep the business and jobs that Jersey had, and going after new jobs in the digital and finance sectors.

But he warned that more consolidation in the banking sector was likely to mean more job losses in Jersey – the latest figures suggest that around 200 banking jobs have gone in the last 12 months.

Senator Gorst said: “We need to attract people with digital skills and attract new digital business.

“They are not going to be big but we need a critical mass and we need new financial services business because we know that our core banking tends to find things difficult and will continue to consolidate, so its about replacing those jobs that we know are going to continue to be lost.

“We cannot be complacent in that area at all.”

And the Senator added that he wanted Senator Ozouf to lead a review of the Competition Law to ensure that it was delivering the best results for Islanders.

Senator Gorst said: “The Competition Law has been in existence for ten years and we have to assess and ask is it functioning in our best interests. We know that telecoms are changing and we know all of this is extremely important for any digital part of our economy so that is going to be an important piece of work.”