administrative fines

Who is caught

Administrative fines in Guernsey arise under several separate instruments, each with its own class of persons who can be penalised. The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) is the principal fining authority for the financial services sector, but the Data Protection Authority and the Registrar of Companies also have fining powers under their respective laws.

• Financial services licensees: Under the Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) Law, 2020, licensees across banking, investment business, fiduciaries, lending/credit/finance, insurance and insurance intermediation, plus authorised or registered collective investment schemes, applicants and former licensees, are subject to the Commission's financial penalty powers.
• Prescribed businesses: The Prescribed Businesses Law, 2008 brings within scope relevant businesses under the proceeds of crime regime that fall outside the main licensing laws, subject to specified exclusions.
• Data controllers and processors: The Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017 makes controllers, processors and related parties liable to administrative fines imposed by the Data Protection Authority.
• Limited partnerships: Under the Limited Partnerships (Guernsey) Law, 1995 the Registrar may apply civil penalties to limited partnerships, general partners and resident agents.
• Individuals: The enforcement notices indexed here show fines imposed not only on firms but on individuals such as directors, controllers, managers, MLROs and compliance officers, and on persons carrying on regulated activity without a licence.

Sources: Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020 · Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017 (Consolidated text) · Limited Partnerships (Guernsey) Law, 1995 · Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Consolidated text) · Ms Ginette Louise Blondel (2024-03-06) · Crescendo Advisors International Limited, Mr Hamish Jebb Hamilton Few (2022-12-30) · Criteria Wealth Management Limited, Mark Peter Penney, Marc Adam Roxby (2020-05-04)

Key duties

The instruments here impose the continuing obligations whose breach exposes a person to fines. The obligations that recur most across the enforcement notices concern cooperation with the regulator, information provision, record-keeping and financial crime controls.

• Open and cooperative dealing: Licensees must deal with the Commission in an open and co-operative manner and keep it promptly informed of anything that ought reasonably to be disclosed (section 5, Enforcement Powers Law).
• Respond to information requests: Licensees, prescribed businesses and associated persons must comply with the Commission's requests for information, reports and documents and cooperate with appointed inspectors; failure to comply is itself an offence under the Prescribed Businesses Law and Limited Partnerships Law.
• Electronic filing: Documents required to be submitted to the Commission must be filed in electronic form as prescribed (Enforcement Powers Law).
• Registration and levies: Data controllers and processors must register with the Data Protection Authority and pay prescribed levies; limited partnerships must register and pay prescribed fees.
• Breach notification: Under the Data Protection Law, controllers must notify the Authority of personal data breaches and, where there is high risk to significant interests, notify affected data subjects.
• Record-keeping: Controllers and processors, limited partnerships and financial services businesses must keep proper records, returns and books as required by their governing laws.
• Registrar notifications: Limited partnerships must notify the Registrar of changes in registered particulars and, where within scope, appoint and maintain a resident agent who verifies and discloses beneficial ownership information.

The enforcement notices repeatedly identify breaches of AML/CFT obligations (relationship risk assessment, customer and enhanced due diligence, ongoing monitoring, source of funds and wealth) and corporate governance standards as the conduct that attracts fines, but those substantive requirements sit in the Proceeds of Crime regime, the Handbook and the various Codes rather than in the fining instruments themselves.

Sources: Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020 · Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017 (Consolidated text) · Limited Partnerships (Guernsey) Law, 1995 · Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Consolidated text)

Exemptions and carve-outs

The fining instruments provide a small number of carve-outs, and one statutory exemption features prominently as something the Commission can withdraw as a sanction.

• Personal or household processing: The Data Protection Law does not apply to processing carried out for purely personal, family or household purposes.
• Prescribed business exclusions: The Prescribed Businesses Law excludes specified activities from scope, including high value dealing, casinos, small businesses, and certain paragraph 6 businesses not required to register.
• Disapplication as a sanction: The section 3(1)(g) exemption under the Fiduciaries Law (which otherwise permits limited unlicensed activity) is routinely disapplied to sanctioned individuals for a fixed period, and the Enforcement Powers Law gives the Commission a general power to disapply exemptions. This is a penalty mechanism rather than a relief from fines.

Sources: Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020 · Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017 (Consolidated text) · Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Consolidated text) · Crescendo Advisors International Limited, Mr Hamish Jebb Hamilton Few (2022-12-30) · Criteria Wealth Management Limited, Mark Peter Penney, Marc Adam Roxby (2020-05-04) · Capital Solutions Limited, Stillwater Worldwide Limited, Stillwater Investment Enterprise Limited, Philip Anthony John Montague, Terence Joseph Scullion, David John de Carteret (2017-06-14)

Enforcement and penalties

Fining powers span two regimes for the financial services sector. Decisions taken before the 2020 reforms were made under section 11D of the Financial Services Commission Law (with public statements under section 11C); decisions under the current regime are made under section 39 of the Enforcement Powers Law (with public statements under section 38, prohibition orders under section 33 and exemption disapplications under section 32).

• Financial penalties: The Commission may impose discretionary and administrative financial penalties on firms and individuals. The Data Protection Authority may impose administrative fines subject to statutory limits, and the Registrar may apply civil penalties to limited partnerships.
• Prohibition and disqualification: The Enforcement Powers Law allows prohibition orders against individuals and disqualification orders against auditors and actuaries, with public lists maintained; the notices show prohibitions ranging from around one to over ten years.
• Other sanctions: Available measures include private reprimands, enforceable undertakings, public statements, licence conditions, suspension or revocation of licences, controller objection notices, and winding-up or injunction applications to the courts.

Penalty levels in practice

The indexed notices give a sense of quantum but do not establish statutory maxima, which the summaries do not state. Firm penalties in these cases ranged from around £8,000 up to £455,000 (Equiom), with other substantial firm fines including £450,000 (Artemis), £203,000 (Crescendo), £190,000 (Channel Islands Stock Exchange) and £175,000 (ITI Trade). Individual penalties ranged from around £7,000 up to £210,000 (Ms Blondel, for unlicensed fiduciary activity), with £196,000, £133,000 and £125,000 also appearing.

• Early settlement discounts: Penalties were commonly reduced for cooperation and early settlement, with a 30 percent discount recurring across the notices.
• Insolvency and means: In several cases no penalty, or a reduced penalty, was imposed where the firm was insolvent or in liquidation, or where an individual lacked means to pay; the Commission often recorded the penalty it would otherwise have imposed.

Decisions are subject to representation rights and appeals to the Royal Court (and, in some matters, the Court of Appeal); under the Prescribed Businesses Law an appeal must be brought within 28 days of the decision notice. The instruments also create criminal offences (for example false information, obstruction and failure to comply with information requests) that sit alongside the administrative fining powers.

Sources: Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020 · Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2017 (Consolidated text) · Limited Partnerships (Guernsey) Law, 1995 · Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Consolidated text) · Artemis Trustees Limited (2026-07-03) · ITI Trade LTD. (in Administration Management) and Mr Alex Phil (2025-07-23) · Equiom (Guernsey) Limited (2024-07-26) · Ms Ginette Louise Blondel (2024-03-06) · Crescendo Advisors International Limited, Mr Hamish Jebb Hamilton Few (2022-12-30) · Criteria Wealth Management Limited, Mark Peter Penney, Marc Adam Roxby (2020-05-04) · The Channel Islands Stock Exchange (2014-10-01)