Revised rules, codes and guidance
6th October 2021The Commission is publishing today the finalised draft revised rules, codes and guidance that accompany the introduction of the revised principal laws dealing with the regulation of financial services business in the Bailiwick as part of the Commission’s Revision of Laws project. The new rules, codes and guidance will come into effect on Monday 1 November 2021, on the same day as the new and amended regulatory laws.
The new and amended regulatory laws will help to ensure that the Bailiwick is able to demonstrate its compliance with international standards helping to cement, maintain and improve the Bailiwick’s access to relevant international markets. The new and amended laws also aim to eliminate inconsistencies between the regulatory laws which should help to create efficiencies for industry and the Commission.
In order to implement effectively the new and amended regulatory laws, in recent months the Commission drafted and consulted on revised rules, codes and guidance to accompany them. With the implementation of the new and amended laws, it has been necessary to conduct a review of the rules, codes and guidance made under the current laws, to ensure that the new system of regulation works and that the transition, to the new regulatory regime, is as easy as possible.
Most of the changes are minor in nature and do not set out material policy changes from the previous rules, codes and guidance. This approach of minimal change has the added benefit that it should limit the administrative burden on licensees in needing to make changes to their policies and procedures.
Responses to the consultation papers were supportive of the Commission’s approach towards ensuring that all rules, codes and guidance are up-to-date, accessible, and written in plain English. Feedback statements addressing the consultation feedback have been published on the Commission’s Consultation Hub. The consultation papers are also available on the Consultation Hub and these detail the old version of the rules, codes or guidance and their replacement along with flagging any key amendments.
The revised rules, codes and guidance have been split into the different industry sectors:
Entities licensed under the Insurance Business (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2002
You may notice that the rules are marked as draft. The rules will be made final when the laws come into effect on 1 November 2021 and re-published in final form then. There will be no further changes to the content of the rules, codes and guidance between now and 1 November 2021.
If licensees have any questions about the implementation of the new laws and/or the revised rules, codes and guidance, please email [email protected] or their usual supervisory contact.
From 1 November 2021, the previous supervisory laws and accompanying rules, codes and guidance will be archived on the Commission’s website here.
There are no changes in the new regulatory laws relating to Prescribed Businesses and Non-Regulated Financial Services Businesses.