Blenheim Fiduciary Group Limited (2017-08-25)

Summary

This is a public statement issued by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) announcing enforcement action against Blenheim Fiduciary Group Limited, a licensed fiduciary. The Commission imposed a financial penalty of £70,000 (after a 30% early settlement discount) following an on-site AML/CFT visit and a subsequent investigation by appointed inspectors, which uncovered serious and systemic anti-money laundering and customer due diligence failings.

• NRFSB registration failure: The Licensee managed and administered three loan companies that should have been, but were not, registered under the Registration of Non-Regulated Financial Services Businesses Law.
• Inadequate monitoring: The Licensee failed to effectively monitor the business of the loan companies, breaching Regulation 11 of the Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) Regulations.
• Missed red flags: Files showed unaddressed money laundering red flags (e.g. name/identity changes, 'dummy' settlors, unverified third-party directors), breaching Rule 56 of the Handbook and Regulation 4(3)(e) of the Regulations.
• CDD deficiencies: Over half of more than 2,000 verification subjects required remedial customer due diligence work; CDD was missing or incomplete on certain borrowers and settlors.
• Failure to review risk assessments: The Licensee did not regularly review relationship risk assessments (breach of Regulation 3(2)(b)) and failed to maintain an effective compliance review policy (breach of Regulation 15), despite the backlog being flagged as early as 2012-2013.

The statement notes mitigating factors, including the Licensee's cooperation, its extensive remediation programme completed by January 2017, and its exit from roughly 60 percent of its client base. This is a historical enforcement notice describing a concluded penalty decision and does not itself create new ongoing obligations beyond the existing regulatory requirements it references.

Applies to

fiduciaries, licensees under the Fiduciaries Law, trust and company service providers, non-regulated financial services businesses (in relation to registration requirements)