Prescribed Business Return (Form 154) Guidance

Summary

This is GFSC guidance explaining how prescribed businesses (accountants, lawyers and estate agents supervised under the Bailiwick's financial crime regime) should complete and submit the annual Prescribed Business Return (PB Return, Form 154) via the Commission's Online Portal. It walks through each section of the form and clarifies terminology, but does not itself create new substantive AML/CFT obligations beyond the return's completion and submission requirements.

• Who must file: All registered prescribed businesses must submit one PB Return covering all of their Schedule 2 activities undertaken during the Reporting Period (1 July to 30 June).
• What is reported: Numbers of business relationships and occasional transactions broken down by service type, by whether the customer/beneficial owner is Bailiwick resident or not, and by the GFSC-supervised category of the customer (banks, insurers, funds, investment licensees, fiduciaries, accountants, lawyers, estate agents, non-regulated financial services businesses).
• Referral sources: Firms must identify the top three sources from which they accept customer referrals, answered on a best-efforts basis if exact data is unavailable.
• Sign-off: A senior representative (Board member or equivalent, MLCO or MLRO) must approve the completed Return before submission.

The Return must be submitted annually by 31 October. Firms encountering discrepancies in read-only fields (Firm Name, Reporting Period dates) on the Start Page are instructed not to proceed and instead contact the Commission's Online Services Helpdesk.

Key obligations

• Registered prescribed businesses must submit one PB Return annually covering all Schedule 2 activities undertaken during the Reporting Period.
• The completed PB Return must be submitted by 31 October annually.
• Where multiple service lines are provided to a client, the Firm must report by primary service line rather than all services provided.
• A senior representative (Board or equivalent, MLCO or MLRO) must approve the content of the completed PB Return before submission.
• If read-only fields (Firm Name, Reporting Period start/end dates) are incorrect, the Firm must not progress with the Return and must instead contact the Commission's Online Services Helpdesk.

Applies to

prescribed businesses, accountancy service providers (auditors, external accountants, insolvency practitioners, tax advisers), legal services providers, estate agents

Deadlines

• 31 October annually: Deadline for submission of the completed Prescribed Business Return covering the prior Reporting Period (1 July to 30 June).