DNFBPs

Who is caught

In Guernsey, designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) are drawn into the regulatory net principally through the Bailiwick's anti-money laundering regime rather than the main financial services licensing laws. The Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1999 imposes AML/CFT duties on 'relevant businesses' and 'specified businesses', and the Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 provides the framework for the Commission's supervision of those businesses that fall outside the licensing laws.

• Prescribed businesses: Under the Prescribed Businesses Law, a 'prescribed business' is a relevant business under the Proceeds of Crime Law that falls outside the main licensing laws; the sector is described as including legal professionals, accountants and estate agents.
• Specified businesses (Handbook): The Handbook on Countering Financial Crime applies to all 'specified businesses' conducting financial services business or prescribed business in the Bailiwick, including Bailiwick branches of overseas firms, natural persons, legal persons and legal arrangements such as companies, partnerships and sole traders, and expressly covers trust and corporate service providers, virtual asset service providers, payment service providers and money service providers.
• Proceeds of Crime Law schedules: The 1999 Law applies to financial services businesses (Schedule 1), relevant businesses (Schedule 2) and specified businesses (Schedule 3), and lists estate agents, accountants, non-locally qualified legal professionals, advocates, trustees, partners, bodies corporate and partnerships among those caught.
• Non-financial services businesses: The Disclosure (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2007 places disclosure obligations on persons in non-financial services businesses (DNFBPs), separately from the obligations on financial services businesses.
• High value dealers: Businesses dealing in precious metals, precious stones or jewellery are caught by the cash-transaction restriction under the 2008 Restriction on Cash Transactions Regulations.

Sources: Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1999 · Disclosure (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2007 (Consolidated text) · Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Consolidated text) · Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) (Restriction on Cash Transactions) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Regulations, 2008 · Prescribed Business Return (Form 154) Guidance · Handbook on Countering Financial Crime (AML/CFT/CPF) (7 July 2026)

Key duties

The continuing obligations on DNFBPs are overwhelmingly AML/CFT obligations, backed by recurring returns with fixed deadlines. The Proceeds of Crime Law and Schedule 3, as interpreted by the Handbook, set the substantive compliance duties, while the Prescribed Businesses Law and the Financial Crime Returns Rules add supervision and filing requirements.

Registration and returns

• Registration: Relevant and specified businesses must comply with the registration and AML/CFT duties set out under the Proceeds of Crime Law and its Schedules; the Prescribed Businesses Law governs supervision of registered prescribed businesses.
• Prescribed Business Return: Registered prescribed businesses must submit one annual PB Return (Form 154) covering all Schedule 2 activities for the reporting period 1 July to 30 June, due by 31 October, approved by a senior representative before submission.
• Financial Crime Risk Return: Under the Financial Crime Returns Rules, 2025, licensees and registrants must file the annual Financial Crime Risk Return for the 1 July to 30 June period by 31 October following period end.
• Information notices: Registered prescribed businesses must comply with Commission notices requiring information, reports or documents within the specified time and form, and former registered businesses remain subject to these powers for up to six years after deregistration.

AML/CFT compliance

• Risk-based controls: Firms must apply a risk-based approach and maintain a documented business risk assessment covering money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risk, under Schedule 3 and the Handbook.
• Customer due diligence: Firms must carry out customer due diligence, including enhanced or simplified measures where appropriate, identify beneficial owners, and monitor ongoing relationships for suspicious or unusual activity.
• Sanctions screening: Firms must screen customers, beneficial owners and key principals at take-on, during periodic reviews and on trigger events, and comply with Handbook obligations to disclose sanctions connections to the Commission and maintain a sanctions register.
• Employee screening and training: Firms must screen and train employees on AML/CFT/CPF requirements and keep training records; the Commission has restated these as existing obligations under the Regulations and Handbook.
• Record-keeping: Firms must keep records of CDD, transactions and training as required by Schedule 3 and the Handbook.
• Notification of failures: Handbook rules require businesses to advise the Commission of any material failure to comply with the Regulations or Handbook, or serious breaches of internal policies, procedures and controls.

Disclosure of suspicion

• Required disclosures: Persons in non-financial services businesses must disclose knowledge or suspicion of money laundering to a prescribed police officer or FIU officer as soon as possible, and must not tip off, subject to defined defences, under the Disclosure Law.
• Manner of reporting: Disclosures under the Terrorism and Crime Regulations must normally be made through the FIU's online reporting facility, and additional-information notices must be answered within the period specified (generally at least seven days).

Sector-specific directions

• Cash restriction: High value dealers must not sell or buy precious metals, precious stones or jewellery for cash exceeding 10,000 pounds (or currency equivalent), including through a structured series of payments.
• Higher-risk jurisdictions: Standing Instructions require prescribed and specified businesses to apply enhanced due diligence and greater caution to business connected with jurisdictions on FATF and Commission lists, and time-limited Instructions have required firms to identify and remediate relationships that relied on introducer, intermediary or equivalent-jurisdiction concessions (for example connected to Cayman Islands, Malta and Iceland) by set dates.
• Governance reviews: Instructions issued to prescribed businesses have required Boards to review AML/CFT governance, employee screening, introducer arrangements and suspicion-reporting timeliness, and to remedy deficiencies by fixed deadlines.
• Cooperation with site visits: Prescribed businesses and associated parties must permit and cooperate with Commission site visits and information requests under the Site Visits Ordinance and the Prescribed Businesses Law.

Sources: Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1999 · Disclosure (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2007 (Consolidated text) · Financial Services Commission (Site Visits) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance, 2008 (Consolidated Text) · Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Consolidated text) · Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) (Restriction on Cash Transactions) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Regulations, 2008 · Terrorism and Crime (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Regulations, 2007 (Consolidated text) · Instruction Number 02/2021 for Specified Businesses - Malta · Instruction (Number 03/2017) for Prescribed Businesses · Instruction Number 02/2017 for Prescribed Businesses · Instruction Number 04/2019 for Specified Businesses (2019-11-29) · Instructions and Notices Issued by the GFSC - Business From Sensitive Sources: Record of Changes (2017-12-05) · Instruction (Number 1) for Prescribed Businesses - Corporate Governance and Internal Controls (2009-11-11) · Prescribed Businesses Instruction (Number 2) - Suspicion Reports (2009-11-11) · Prescribed Businesses Instruction (Number 03) · Instruction (Number 4) for Prescribed Businesses (2009-11-11) · Prescribed Businesses Instruction (Number 12) Business from Sensitive Sources - Iran (2011-11-22) · Financial Crime Returns Rules, 2025 · Guidance Note June 2014 - Visit Trends & Observations (January 2012 - 30 March 2014) · Prescribed Business Return (Form 154) Guidance · Governance, Risk and Compliance Controls to Counter Financial Crime - Estate Agency, Legal and Accountancy Services - Thematic Review 2024 · Handbook on Countering Financial Crime (AML/CFT/CPF) (7 July 2026) · Instruction Number 01/2021 for Specified Businesses - Cayman Islands (2021-03-05)

Exemptions and carve-outs

The instruments provide scope exclusions rather than blanket exemptions from the AML/CFT regime. The main carve-outs sit in the Prescribed Businesses Law and the Financial Crime Returns Rules.

• Prescribed business exclusions: The Prescribed Businesses Law applies to relevant businesses under the Proceeds of Crime Law subject to specified exclusions, described as including high value dealing, casinos, small businesses and certain paragraph 6 businesses not required to register; the scope of these exclusions has been affected by later amendments.
• Financial Crime Returns exclusions: Certain categories are excluded from the Financial Crime Returns Rules altogether, including personal fiduciary licence holders, general-insurance-only licensees, certain LCF ancillary or credit-provision-only licensees, and businesses under specific Proceeds of Crime Law schedule provisions; the Commission may also exclude or modify application by written notice.
• Disclosure defences: The Disclosure Law provides defences to failure-to-disclose offences, including reasonable excuse, professional legal privilege (subject to exceptions where information furthers a criminal purpose), and lack of required AML training.

Sources: Disclosure (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2007 (Consolidated text) · Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Consolidated text) · Financial Crime Returns Rules, 2025

Enforcement and penalties

Enforcement of DNFBP obligations combines the Commission's administrative powers over prescribed businesses with criminal offences in the underlying statutes and regulations. Financial penalties in specific cases appear in the Commission's published enforcement statements.

Commission enforcement powers

• Prescribed Businesses Law: The Commission may issue private reprimands, discretionary financial penalties, public statements and disqualification orders, and may apply to the Court to wind up a company or grant an injunction against a person carrying on a registered prescribed business; failing without reasonable excuse to comply with an information or document request is an offence, as are providing false or misleading information and falsifying documents.
• Appeal window: A person aggrieved by specified Commission decisions must appeal to the Court within 28 days of the notice of decision.

Criminal offences

• Cash restriction: Breaching the high value dealer cash restriction is a criminal offence: a first offence carries a fine not exceeding level 2 on the uniform scale (stated as currently 1,000 pounds), and a second or subsequent offence a fine not exceeding twice the value of the cash involved.
• Site visits: Obstructing or failing to comply with a request or requirement, making false or misleading statements, or falsifying, concealing, destroying or removing relevant documents are offences punishable on summary conviction by up to six months' imprisonment and/or a level 5 fine, or on indictment by up to two years' imprisonment and/or a fine.
• Disclosure offences: Failing to make a required disclosure of suspected money laundering and tipping off are criminal offences under the Disclosure Law, subject to defined defences.
• Terrorism reporting: Failing to provide required additional information under the Terrorism and Crime Regulations is an offence punishable summarily by up to six months' imprisonment and/or a level 5 fine, or on indictment by up to five years' imprisonment and/or a fine.

Enforcement in practice

The Commission's published statements against trust and corporate service providers and fiduciary licensees, decided under the Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) Law, 2020, illustrate the scale of financial penalties for AML/CFT and governance failures. Reported examples include penalties of 455,000 pounds on Equiom (Guernsey) Limited, 450,000 pounds on Artemis Trustees Limited, and 140,000 pounds on each of Fides Corporate Services Limited and Hansard Limited, with further penalties, prohibition orders and exemption disapplications imposed on connected individuals. These statements record concluded, case-specific outcomes rather than new obligations.

Sources: Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020 · Disclosure (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2007 (Consolidated text) · Financial Services Commission (Site Visits) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Ordinance, 2008 (Consolidated Text) · Prescribed Businesses (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Consolidated text) · Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) (Restriction on Cash Transactions) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Regulations, 2008 · Terrorism and Crime (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Regulations, 2007 (Consolidated text) · Artemis Trustees Limited (2026-07-03) · Equiom (Guernsey) Limited (2024-07-26) · Fides Corporate Services Limited, Mr David Charles Housley Whitworth, Mr Paul Conway and Mr Stuart Turner (2024-03-05) · Hansard Limited, Andrew Neil Parr, Alan Peter Northmore, Philip Clive Blows, David Samuel Lloyd, Lynn Giovinazzi (2021-12-22)