Banking

The Commission has published some FAQs on the consumer pages of its website to help inform consumers. These aim to provide easily accessible and clear information on the possible impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) on travel insurance and medical insurance for people living in the Bailiwick. With the Foreign and Commonwealth Office now advising against "all but essential travel" to Italy, it has...

The Commission is today issuing Instruction No. 01/2020 for Specified Businesses, replacing and repealing Instruction No. 03/2019 for Specified Businesses issued on 29 November 2019. Changes since Instruction No. 03/2019 include the addition of Albania, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nicaragua and Uganda, and the removal of Trinidad and Tobago. Further details in respect of these...

On 10 & 11 February 2020 representatives of the Policy & Resources Committee, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (“the Commission”) and the Financial Intelligence Service gave presentations on the Bailiwick’s National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing risks ("the NRA"). The Commission’s presentation covered the main money laundering and terrorist financing risks...

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission ("GFSC") was pleased to note the recent political agreement reached between the European Council and the European Parliament on an EU-wide classification system, or "Taxonomy", which will provide businesses and investors with a common language to identify what economic activities can be considered environmentally sustainable. The detailed criteria...

Please be advised, that with effect from January 2020, the Commission will be introducing exit interviews for individuals who held the position of MLRO and/or MLCO with a Bank or Fiduciary firm. This is a six month pilot initiative, and following our risk based approach, will apply only to individuals who have departed from a MLRO or MLCO position at a Fiduciary or Bank Licensee since the start of...

Form upgrades Further to our previous news article regarding the forthcoming changes to the forms on the OS and PQ Portals, the following forms are now available in the new format: 126a - Fiduciary - Pension Scheme or Gratuity Scheme Quarterly Return 132 - Insurance Manager Annual Return 145 - Investment Quarterly Return 200 - Other Notification 220 – Outsourcing 226 - Surrender Registration It...

The Commission has today removed Iceland from Appendix C (Equivalent Jurisdictions) of the Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing and issued an instruction for all specified business to ensure that full customer due diligence has been applied to all existing business relationships connected to Iceland by 31 January 2020. This action follows the Financial Action Task Force’s...

The Commission has today issued, in final form, the revised Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing ("the Handbook"). The Commission has revised the Handbook, in order to allow firms to advance work on revising their business risk assessments and policies, procedures and controls to take account of the provisions of Schedule 3 and the rules and guidance in the Handbook...

The Commission has today issued proposals to amend the transitional rules in the Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing regarding the timeframes for firms to update their Business Risk Assessments and Policies, Procedures and Controls, which take into account the revised timeframe for the publication of the Bailiwick’s National Risk Assessment. There are no changes proposed...