Feedback on the Compliance function: Key Persons regime green paper (2025-04-11)

Summary

This is a feedback paper issued by the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) responding to its October 2024 green paper on the Compliance function: Key Persons Regime, which covers the roles of Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO), Money Laundering Compliance Officer (MLCO) and Compliance Officer (CO). It summarises the 47 consultation responses received and sets out the JFSC's decision not to pursue large scale reform, opting instead for targeted enhancements to the existing regime.

The green paper had explored three options: retaining the status quo (employment and residency requirements) with enhancements, removing the Jersey residency requirement while keeping the employment link, or removing the employment requirement while keeping residency. 55 percent of respondents expressing a preference favoured retaining the status quo, and the JFSC concludes that no single transformative change is currently desirable, partly because resourcing pressures that originally drove the review have subsided.

• Outsourcing Policy: JFSC will review its Outsourcing Policy to clarify and simplify how it interacts with the Key Persons regime.
• Derogations and variances: JFSC will develop guidance to help firms make better applications for time limited derogations and variances relating to Key Persons.
• Key Person liability: JFSC commits to further engagement with industry on how liability for Key Persons is approached during enforcement actions.
• RegTech guidance: JFSC will share RegTech feedback with stakeholders and review its existing RegTech guidance, working with other Jersey associations.
• Wider reform: Any future large scale reform of the Key Persons regime will be considered alongside the Government of Jersey's financial services competitiveness programme, with industry consulted again at that stage.

The paper is informational and forward looking: it does not itself change any rule, code provision or filing requirement, but signals areas where guidance and policy reviews are forthcoming for firms with MLRO, MLCO or CO roles.

Applies to

regulated financial services firms with Key Person roles (MLRO, MLCO, Compliance Officer), trust companies, fund services businesses, banking businesses