Guidance Note June 2014 - Visit Trends & Observations (January 2012 - 30 March 2014)

Summary

This is a thematic Guidance Note issued by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission's Financial Crime Supervision & Policy Division, summarising trends and observations identified during onsite compliance visits carried out between January 2012 and 30 March 2014. It does not create new legal requirements but explains the Commission's expectations for compliance with the existing Regulations and the AML/CFT Handbooks, using self-assessment questions and examples of good and poor practice across thirteen topic areas.

• Topics covered: Corporate governance, policies/procedures/controls, the MLRO function, business risk assessment, customer risk assessment, customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, high risk relationships, reliance on others, monitoring, reporting of suspicions, and UN/EU/other sanctions screening.
• Purpose: To help financial services businesses and prescribed businesses (including legal professionals, accountants and estate agents) benchmark their compliance arrangements against the Commission's observed good and poor practices, ahead of a joint Commission/industry review of the Handbooks.
• Related material: Should be read alongside the Commission's 27 May 2014 'Dear CEO' letter and the 28 May 2014 Instruction issued to licensed fiduciary businesses, and any related FAQs or Instructions.

The Note reiterates existing rule based obligations rather than imposing new ones, notably the duty under rule 30 of the Handbook for Financial Services Businesses and rule 46 of the Handbook for Legal Professionals, Accountants and Estate Agents to notify the Commission of material failures to comply with the Regulations or Handbooks, or serious breaches of internal policies, procedures and controls.

Key obligations

• Businesses must ensure the Commission is advised of any material failure to comply with the Regulations and the rules in the Handbooks, or any serious breaches of the business's own policies, procedures and controls (Handbook rule 30 for financial services businesses, rule 46 for legal professionals, accountants and estate agents).

Applies to

financial services businesses, prescribed businesses, legal professionals, accountants and estate agents, licensed fiduciary businesses