A very strong message can be sent out that Guernsey is open for business after a positive review into how it combats financial crime, Policy & Resources President Lyndon Trott has said.
The Moneyval assessment comes at a time when the island’s economy is stagnating and, Deputy Trott said, if the island had been grey listed it would have caused a further decline in financial services of 10%.
“Our economy has underperformed, but I am extremely confident of the future on the back of this evaluation,” said Deputy Trott.
“This is a fantastic evaluation, which sends out a very strong message, and that is that we are a respected and internationally compliant international finance center, that we are open for business.”
Two areas that are seen as helpful on the international stage are positive assessments of the beneficial ownership regime and of international cooperation.
The island remains under pressure from the UK Government to go further on allowing access to know who ultimate owns a company and to open up the registers beyond law enforcement to legitimate interest groups like media and civil society groups.
Moneyval found that Guernsey has comprehensive measures to ensure transparency of beneficial ownership of legal persons and arrangements, although the enforcement actions have been limited.
“I think that we’re in line with international and in particular European standards with regards beneficial ownership,” said Deputy Trott.
“There are some in the UK who are not aligned with that European message. So I’m not surprised that Moneyval would be positive in that regard.
“If there is something that the law enforcement agencies need to know, they know it, and they know it within a few minutes, and it’s extremely accurate data.
“And why is it so accurate? One of the reasons is because we’ve been regulating corporate service providers, the people who are custodians of that information, for 25 years now, long before most of our other competitors. So it’s high quality information and made available to people who need it quickly.”
Deputy Trott said the island would not move out of step with the “majority” of Europe which shares its stance.
He did not see the point in rushing to go further and allow legitimate interest.
“We need to make sure that we are closely aligned with our competitors but we don’t want to be doing anything that acts negatively towards our business interests. In other words, we’re internationally compliant. We don’t want to be trailblazers, so we don’t want to be leaders, I don’t think that’s our role. I think our role is to make sure that we adopt internationally and particularly European, best standards, and that’s what we do.”
Deputy Trott dismissed any suggestion that the island was over-regulated.
“We’ve got the right regulation to enable us to remain internationally competitive. I mean, what this evaluation sends out is that this is a long established international finance center that does things properly. It does things proportionately. It does things appropriately, and that’s and it does it consistently, and that sends out a very strong message to the international community, and in particular our international clients.”
The work starts now to ensure the standards are maintained, he said.
“Those involved with the international evaluation can be sure that it’ll be a more progressive approach over the course of the next few months and years, but right now, I think we should rightly bask in the success that we have achieved.”
The full Moneyval report, and a summary document produced by the States, is available at www.gov.gg/finance-fatf.
