Equity Trust (Jersey) Limited (Equity) (2020-06-01)

Summary

This is a public statement issued by the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) announcing that it imposed a civil financial penalty of £115,575 (after a 50% early settlement discount) on Equity Trust (Jersey) Limited (Equity) for breaches of the Code of Practice for Trust Company Business (TCB Code) and related AML/CFT requirements. It is a historic enforcement notice about a specific firm rather than a document that creates new ongoing rules for the wider industry.

• Breaches found: Equity negligently breached Principle 3 of the TCB Code (failure to organise and control its affairs effectively, including inadequate risk-based AML/CFT systems and controls and corporate governance) and paragraph 4.5 of the TCB Code (failure to provide customers with written confirmation of services and terms).
• Deficiency areas identified: Weaknesses were found across customer profiles and risk assessments, customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, politically exposed persons screening, on-going monitoring, record-keeping, and the independence/effectiveness of Equity's compliance function.
• Root cause: The JFSC attributed the issues largely to an earlier 2015 remediation exercise (following a 2015 investigation) that was ineffective and lacked clarity, discipline and governance, with some issues continuing into 2019.
• Mitigation and sanction: Equity's current Board voluntarily disclosed the issues, cooperated fully, commissioned independent reviews and remediation, and made governance and training changes; it also agreed an early settlement, resulting in a 50% discount on what would otherwise have been an approximately £231,150 penalty.

The statement is purely informational and historical in nature, describing a completed enforcement action against Equity; it does not itself impose new prospective obligations or deadlines on other regulated entities, though it illustrates the JFSC's expectations under the TCB Code and AML/CFT Handbook for trust company businesses generally.

Applies to

trust company business (registered persons under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998)