The Commission ensures that the Bailiwick’s regulatory framework and practices meet international standards and is a committed participant in discussions pertaining to international standards.
It does so through membership of, or association with, the following international organisations:
- The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
- The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), and the Group of International Insurance Centre Supervisors (GIICS)
- The Group of International Finance Centre Supervisors (GIFCS)
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - through the United Kingdom's membership.
- The Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL).
Through its membership of the Group of International Finance Centre Supervisors, it works with:
- The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BIS)
- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering
The Commission is committed to international regulatory co-operation and is a signatory to the IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU) and the IOSCO Enhanced Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (EMMoU), as well as the IAIS Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding. It also has numerous bilateral regulatory co-operative agreements in place; and, through the European Securities and Markets Authority, has in place Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) covering The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) with 27 members of the European Economic Area. Requests to the Commission under the IOSCO MMoU or EMMoU should be made to [email protected]
The Commission publishes a list of all current general MoUs and separately those covering AIFMD.
Details (including ratings of compliance) of assessments undertaken as part of international evaluations of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Commission can be found on the External Evaluations pages.
A brief summary of the international regulatory and supervisory organisations with which the Commission is involved is provided below.
Banking
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is the primary global standard setter for the prudential regulation of banks, and also provides a forum for regular cooperation on banking supervisory matters. Its 45 members comprise central banks and bank supervisors from 28 jurisdictions.
Although not a member of the BCBS, the Commission has designed its regulatory framework to be in line with the BCBS’s Core Principles for effective banking supervision and its international recommendations.
The Group of International Financial Centre Supervisors
Guernsey was a founding member of the Offshore Group of Banking Supervisors which was established in 1980 as a forum for supervisory cooperation between banking supervisors. The Group changed its name to the Group of International Finance Centre Supervisors (GIFCS) in March 2011 to reflect the wider scope of its activities not only in encouraging the adoption of international regulatory standards across the board, but also the influence which the Group brings to bear on supervisory developments more generally.
GIFCS holds two plenary meetings each year, to which all members are invited.
The current members of GIFCS are: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Curacao and Saint Maarten, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Labuan, Macau China, Mauritius, Qatar, Samoa, Seychelles, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Vanuatu.
GIFCS has been increasingly recognised by relevant international organisations as a representative body whose members make valuable contributions to combating money laundering/terrorism financing and with regard to the regulation of trust and company service providers.
GIFCS has observer status with the FATF, is a member of the FSB Regional Consultative Group for Europe, and a member of the Basel Consultative Group.
Insurance
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors
The Commission is a founder member of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). IAIS was formed in 1994 and is a voluntary membership organisation of insurance supervisors and regulators from more than 200 jurisdictions. It is located at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. The Mission of IAIS is to promote effective and globally consistent supervision of the insurance industry in order to develop and maintain fair, safe, and stable insurance markets for the protection of policyholders, while also contributing to global financial stability.
IAIS coordinates its work with other international financial policymakers and associations of supervisors or regulators, and also assists in shaping financial systems globally. In particular, the IAIS is a member of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a member of the Standards Advisory Council of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), and a partner in the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii). In recognition of its collective expertise, IAIS also is routinely called upon by G20 leaders and other international standard setting bodies for input on insurance issues, as well as on issues related to the regulation and supervision of the global financial sector.
The Group of International Insurance Centre Supervisors
The Group of International Insurance Centre Supervisors (GIICS) was formed in 1993, in the name of the Offshore Group of Insurance Supervisors, as an association of supervisory authorities concerned with the supervision of international insurance business.
The group’s main objectives are:
- to provide mechanisms and forums whereby insurance supervisors from jurisdictions concerned with international insurance business may discuss areas of mutual interest and concern and formulate appropriate policies;
- to provide assistance and encouragement to appropriate non-member jurisdictions to establish regimes for the supervision of international insurance business to standards that are at least equivalent to those of the group;
- to represent the interests of the group at international insurance forums; and
- generally, to promote the proper supervision of international insurance business.
Investment
International Organization of Securities Commissions
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) was created in 1983 and is recognised as the global standard setter for the securities sector. Comprised of 237 ordinary, associate and affiliate members, IOSCO develops, implements, and promotes adherence to internationally recognised standards for securities regulation, and works closely with the G20 and the Financial Stability Board on the global regulatory reform agenda.
The Commission was originally admitted as an Associate Member in 1991, and became a full Ordinary Member in 1997. In 2024, the Commission became a founding member of the IOSCO Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Network.
IOSCO now embraces almost all the world’s securities and derivatives regulatory bodies and plays an increasingly important role in assisting members to achieve and maintain high regulatory standards in the interests of investors and the prevention of crime.
IOSCO members have resolved:
- to cooperate in developing, implementing, and promoting adherence to internationally recognised and consistent standards of regulation, oversight, and enforcement in order to protect investors; maintain fair, efficient, and transparent markets; and seek to address systemic risks;
- to enhance investor protection and promote investor confidence in the integrity of securities markets, through strengthened information exchange and cooperation in enforcement against misconduct and via the supervision of markets and market intermediaries; and
- to exchange information at both global and regional levels on their respective experiences in order to assist the development of markets, strengthen market infrastructure, and implement appropriate regulation.
Financial crime
The Guernsey authorities, including the Commission, are committed to meeting established international standards on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. The September 2015 report from MONEYVAL, and prior reports in October 2003 and January 2011 from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on their evaluations of the AML/CFT framework of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, concluded that the Bailiwick has a high level of compliance with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.
THE FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE (FATF)
FATF is an inter-governmental body whose purpose is to set international standards to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. The FATF also monitors countries to ensure that they implement the FATF Standards fully and effectively. In total, more than 200 countries and jurisdictions have committed to implement the FATF’s Standards and they are assessed with the help of nine FATF Associate Member organisations and other global partners, the IMF, and World Bank.
Guernsey is not a FATF member but is a Crown Dependency of the United Kingdom (which is a FATF member). Through Guernsey's membership of GIFCS, a body that has observer status at the FATF, Commission representatives frequently attend FATF plenaries and contribute to FATF workstreams such as beneficial ownership and approaches to AML/CFT supervision.
Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures (MONEYVAL)
MONEYVAL is a permanent monitoring body of the Council of Europe entrusted with the task of assessing compliance with the principal international standards to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and the effectiveness of their implementation, as well as with the task of making recommendations to national authorities in respect of necessary improvements that need to be made to their systems. Through a dynamic process of mutual evaluations, peer review, and regular follow-up of its reports, MONEYVAL aims to improve the capacities of national authorities to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism more effectively. MONEYVAL is one of the nine FATF Associate Members referred to above.
Guernsey has been a member of MONEYVAL since 10 October 2012, and was last evaluated by MONEYVAL in 2014; the report from which was published in January 2016.
Sustainable Finance
The Commission is engaged with other regulators to develop awareness, understanding, and capabilities on how to respond to climate-related risks. The Commission contributes to the development of proportionate standards to support the finance industry in its response to climate change.
Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)
The Commission became a member of the NGFS in 2019. The NGFS is a network of central banks and supervisors which share best practices and contribute to the development of environmental and climate risk management within the financial sector. The NGFS also supports the mobilisation of capital for green and low-carbon investments in the broader context of environmentally sustainable development.
Taskforce for Nature-based Financial Disclosure Forum (TNFD)
The Commission joined the TNFD Forum in May 2022. The TNFD was established to develop and deliver a risk management and disclosure framework for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks. It aims to support a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes towards nature-positive outcomes.
Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF)
The Commission became a member of the SIF in 2018. The SIF is a network of leading insurance supervisors and regulators seeking to strengthen their understanding of, and responses to, sustainability issues for the business of insurance. It is a global platform for knowledge sharing, research, and collective action. The Commission contributes to ongoing work streams of the SIF and learns from the expertise within the network to develop its understanding of sustainability within the insurance sector.
IOSCO Sustainable Finance Network (SFN)
The Commission has been a member of IOSCO’s Sustainable Finance Network since February 2019. The SFN facilitates the sharing of information, knowledge, and experiences related to sustainable finance issues. It acts as a vehicle for carrying out collaborative work on common regulatory and supervisory issues and acts as the IOSCO's central point for dialogue and exchange of views with other bodies in this area.
United Nations’ Financial Centres for Sustainability (UN FC4S)
Guernsey joined the UN FC4S in 2018. The Network includes other leading financial centres including London, Frankfurt, Paris, and Zurich which share the objective of exchanging experiences and taking common actions on shared priorities to accelerate the expansion of green and sustainable finance. Guernsey’s participation is facilitated through Guernsey Finance
IMF Annual Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey
The Commission participates in the IMF's Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey ("CPIS"). The Commission is the CPIS statistician for the Bailiwick and is responsible for the compilation of these statistics on an annual basis. The Commission asks relevant institutions to provide cross-border investment statistics in respect of Guernsey banks, open-ended and closed-ended collective investment funds, insurers, insurance intermediaries/brokers, and special purpose vehicles. Institutions are asked to complete the survey forms on a voluntary basis and, to date, the Commission has supplied the IMF with aggregated information from all of the institutions that it has approached.
Survey results for all jurisdictions are available on the IMF website as soon as they have been collated.