Consultation on Jersey Financial Services Commission Civil Penalties Extension (2021-07-07)

Summary

This is a Government of Jersey public consultation (run by the Office of the Chief Executive, alongside a parallel JFSC consultation) on draft legislation to extend and strengthen the JFSC's civil financial penalties regime for anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing breaches. It does not itself create binding rules; it sought industry feedback on proposed amendments before draft laws are finalised. The consultation period has closed and a response paper has been published.

• Scope extension: The draft amendments would extend the civil penalties regime to designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) such as lawyers, accountants and estate agents, who are not currently within its scope.
• Personal liability: Directors and senior management of regulated firms would be brought within scope, making them personally liable for civil fines for AML/CFT breaches.
• Purpose: The stated aim is to increase the effectiveness, proportionality and dissuasiveness of the existing civil financial penalties regime under the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998.
• Related legislation: Proposed instruments are the draft Financial Services Commission (Amendment No. 8) (Jersey) Law 202- and the draft Financial Services Commission (Financial Penalties) (Amendment No. 2) (Jersey) Order 202-.
• Parallel JFSC process: A separate, concurrent JFSC consultation addressed streamlining the JFSC's decision-making process for imposing regulatory sanctions.

Because this is a consultation document rather than enacted legislation, it does not currently impose enforceable obligations on firms or individuals; any obligations will arise only if and when the draft amendments are enacted.

Applies to

JFSC-regulated financial services businesses, designated non-financial businesses and professions (lawyers, accountants, estate agents), directors and senior management of regulated entities

Deadlines

• 01/09/2021: Deadline for submitting comments on the consultation (consultation now closed)