Pension

The Commission’s Financial Crime Division is recommencing its routine financial crime inspections to firms with immediate effect. Routine inspections were suspended on 19 March 2020 to enable firms to deal with the immediate operational impact of the coronavirus lockdown. Financial Crime inspections are resuming now as the finance industry has demonstrated its resilience and firms have generally...

Following our announcement of 24 March 2020: https://www.gfsc.gg/news/commission-allows-more-time-firms-complete-key-financial-returns], the Commission has been pleased to note the resilience of the Bailiwick’s finance sector including the widespread ability to work from home effectively. This operational resilience, taken together with recent States of Guernsey announcements regarding exit from...

The Financial Action Task Force ("FATF") has released a guidance paper regarding COVID-19-related money laundering and terrorist financing risks, which can be accessed directly on the FATF website. This paper and other FATF guidance can be found within the FATF Guidance section of the Commission's Legislation and Guidance page.

The Commission is undertaking a short consultation on changes proposed to rules and guidance in the Handbook on Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing (version issued on 29 November 2019) to take into account the Bailiwick of Guernsey’s National Risk Assessment (“NRA”) on money laundering (“ML”) and the financing of terrorism (“FT”) which was published in January 2020. It is...

The Commission has received a number of enquiries from firms whose staff are working from home and are unable to verify individuals on a face-to-face basis through physical meetings or where the individual has been unable to provide to the firm a certified copy of their identification data. Rule 5.27 of the Handbook permits a firm to use electronic verification to verify, in whole or in part, the...

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission is today issuing two Consultation Papers seeking feedback from interested parties on potential changes to the regulatory framework under the Regulation of Fiduciaries, Administration Businesses and Company Directors, etc (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2000 (the "Fiduciaries Law") with the objective of ensuring that the regime continues to be both compliant...

The Commission is today issuing a discussion paper seeking feedback from all interested parties on potential enhancements to the regulatory framework under the Regulation of Fiduciaries, Administration Businesses and Company Directors, etc (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2000 (the "Fiduciaries Law") with the objective of ensuring that the regime continues to be both compliant with international...

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (“The Commission”) recognises that cyber and information security is a high priority risk area for organisations of all sizes. The Commission considers that all financial services firms and prescribed businesses in the Bailiwick of Guernsey should have a structured approach to managing cyber and information security. Cyber and information security should...

Two-factor authentication (“2FA”) functionality is now available on the Online Submissions Portal. This is in line with the Commission’s commitment to continually improving the security of licensee data. If your organisation promotes the use of 2FA, then please ensure that your portal users opt in to use the functionality. A guide with instructions is available here.