Belasko Jersey Limited (2024-10-11)

Summary

This is a public statement issued by the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) announcing that it imposed a civil financial penalty of £19,211.73 on Belasko Jersey Limited, a Jersey trust company and fund services business, following an enforcement investigation into its handling of a single high-risk customer relationship between November 2019 and March 2022.

• Nature of breaches: The JFSC found Belasko negligently contravened Principles 2 and 3 of the Code of Practice for Trust Company Business (TCB Code) and the AML/CFT Code in respect of one customer, including inadequate systems and controls, insufficient due diligence on a Power of Attorney holder, inadequate ongoing monitoring, poor recordkeeping, and failure to demonstrate full AML/CFT compliance.
• Aggravating factors: Failures went undetected by Belasko's own compliance monitoring, it did not follow published JFSC guidance, and it failed to notify the JFSC of non-compliance it had itself identified during an internal review.
• Mitigating factors: Belasko cooperated fully with the investigation, no customers suffered losses, it terminated the relationship in October 2022 after identifying the issue in February 2021, and it has since strengthened its compliance function.
• Sanction and discount: A civil financial penalty of £19,211.73 was imposed on 20 September 2024; Belasko received a 50% (Stage One) discount for entering early settlement discussions.

The statement is issued under Article 25(ba) of the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 and Article 26(ba) of the Supervisory Bodies Law to support the JFSC's guiding principles of protecting Jersey's reputation and countering financial crime. It is a record of a concluded enforcement matter rather than a source of new ongoing rules, though it illustrates the JFSC's expectations under the TCB Code and AML/CFT Code for risk assessment, CDD, ongoing monitoring and recordkeeping.

Applies to

trust company business, fund services business, supervised persons regulated under the AML/CFT Code and TCB Code