Confidence in the Bailiwick: securing good regulatory outcomes with integrity, proportionality, and professional excellence.
Who we are
The Guernsey Financial Services Commission is the regulatory body for the finance industry in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. We seek to secure good regulatory outcomes with integrity, proportionality, and professional excellence; thereby generating confidence in the Bailiwick as a jurisdiction.
We are an independent public body funded entirely by the licensees that we regulate by charging them fees. We are accountable to the States of Guernsey which is responsible for the Bailiwick’s financial services industry and for establishing the regulatory regime.
What we do
The Commission supervises and regulates over 2,000 licensees from within the banking, fiduciary, insurance, and investment sectors. We do this in accordance with standards set by international bodies such as the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, and the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering.
How we do it
We use a risk based approach to the supervision of licensees which is underpinned by a system known as PRISM (Probability Risk and Impact SysteM). It is a structured system which enables us to focus our finite supervisory resources on high value, forward-looking, supervisory activities. We place a strong emphasis on the business models and governance of the most significant licensees in the Bailiwick. Our work requires our supervisors to challenge, to make judgements, and to mitigate unacceptable risks – prudential, financial crime, or conduct-related. PRISM helps us to ensure that we anticipate and address problems before they become crises. However, it is not a panacea and, therefore, licensee failures still occur.