Guernsey Press

Guernsey has to ‘polish its act’

GUERNSEY has to ‘polish its act up’ in comparison to Jersey, a City commentator has claimed.

Published
Justin Urquhart Stewart. (Picture by David Ferguson, (22049601)

Justin Urquhart Stewart appeared to question the performance of Guernsey financial services regulator compared to its counterpart in Jersey – where his company Seven Investment Management has an office.

‘Guernsey’s got to work harder because the reputation that Guernsey’s got in terms of the regulator is not as good. It’s not seen as being as effective. So Guernsey has got to polish its act up even further,’ he said.

‘What it should be doing is learning off Jersey and actually, although the two islands aren’t exactly always going to be tied together in terms of enthusiasm, they should try and market themselves together because there’s greater strength.

‘Guernsey’s got to work a lot harder, obviously it doesn’t have the scale which Jersey has so what Guernsey should be trying to do is, if Jersey will allow it, borrow some coat tails to be able to stand on.’

Responding to the comments, a spokesman for the Guernsey Financial Services Commission said: ‘We do not think it is appropriate to get drawn into a competition about who has the best regulation.

‘We work constructively with the Jersey Financial Services Commission on regulatory matters of common interest such as anti-money laundering where we have near identical Council of Europe rankings for effectiveness.’

The GFSC spokesman also said the commission was saddened to hear about the unexpected departure of JFSC director-general John Harris, adding it empathised ‘with him over the stress of the regulatory role in a small island community. We continue to work with his colleagues and look forward to building good relations with his successor when he or she is appointed in due course.’