administrative fines

Who is caught

The civil financial penalty regime is created by Articles 21A to 21G of the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998, with maximum levels set by the Financial Services Commission (Financial Penalties) (Jersey) Order 2015. It allows the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) to impose penalties for contraventions of a Code of Practice or a relevant enactment, including the Money Laundering (Jersey) Order 2008. Both firms and individuals fall within scope.

Firms in scope

• Registered persons: Banks under the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991, insurance permit holders under the Insurance Business (Jersey) Law 1996, investment, trust and company administration businesses under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998, collective investment fund functionaries and certificate holders under the Collective Investment Funds (Jersey) Law 1988, and alternative investment fund service providers under the Alternative Investment Funds (Jersey) Regulations 2012.
• Supervised persons: Persons supervised under the Proceeds of Crime (Supervisory Bodies) (Jersey) Law 2008.

Individuals in scope

• Principal and key persons: Principal persons and key persons of registered persons may be personally liable for civil financial penalties.
• MLROs: Money laundering reporting officers and deputy MLROs were brought into scope by a 2022 amendment to the Commission Law.
• Senior management functions: Persons performing a designated senior management function. Four categories were adopted by a statutory Notice published on 12 January 2023 and effective 13 March 2023, covering local AML/CFT compliance or risk managers, certain persons reporting to the board or a principal person, persons carrying out senior-management duties required by the Money Laundering Order or an AML/CFT Code, and a bank's designated senior officer.

Sources: Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998 · Financial Services Commission (Financial Penalties) (Jersey) Order 2015 · Civil Financial Penalties on Natural Persons: Methodology for Determining the Amount · Civil Financial Penalties on Registered Persons: Methodology for determining the amount · Regulatory Settlements (Issued 2022-02-10) · Feedback on consultation No. 3 2026 – amendments to the Civil Financial Penalties Methodology for Registered Persons · Feedback on Consultation No. 3 2022: Senior Management Functions

Key duties

The instruments indexed here are primarily about how penalties are triggered and calculated rather than day-to-day compliance rules. The obligations most relevant to administrative fines are the underlying notification and cooperation duties whose breach exposes firms and individuals to penalties, together with the procedural steps once enforcement is underway.

• Code notification: Registered persons must notify the Commission of matters required by a Code of Practice within the Code's timeframe. Repeated failure (more than once in two years) after a prior written warning exposes the firm to a Band 1 penalty.
• Rectification: A firm found in contravention must rectify the matter within the reasonable timeframe set by the Commission to avoid escalation to Band 2 penalty levels.
• Timely filings: Reporting entities must complete and return JFSC risk data requests, including the supervisory risk data collection, by the stated deadline. Non-submission is a Code of Practice breach that may trigger a late filing fee under the fees notices.
• Open and co-operative dealing: Firms and individuals must deal with the JFSC openly and co-operatively under the relevant Codes, including where they are engaging with the Attorney General on a deferred prosecution agreement. Failure to notify known non-compliance is treated as an aggravating factor in enforcement notices.
• Cooperation with investigations: A person compelled by the JFSC must produce documents or information, attend to answer questions, comply with directions (for example to preserve records), and, where directed, appoint and pay for a professional to produce a report.
• Payment of penalties: A person subject to a civil financial penalty must pay it or face a late payment surcharge and enforcement action under Article 21E.
• Representations: A Subject who receives a Notice of Intent has one month from receipt to make written representations to the Board DMP Committee before it determines the case.

Sources: Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998 · Financial Services Commission (Financial Penalties) (Jersey) Order 2015 · Decision-Making Process (JFSC Policy) · Our approach to enforcement · Regulatory Settlements (Issued 2022-02-10) · Updates to our 2024 supervisory risk data collection (2024-09-27)

Exemptions and carve-outs

The indexed instruments contain limited carve-outs, most of them affecting reporting or the reach of a particular methodology rather than the penalty regime as a whole.

• DNFBPs: At the time of the 2021 consultation, designated non-financial businesses and professions such as lawyers, accountants and estate agents were not within the civil penalties regime. The consultation proposed extending the regime to them; the summaries do not confirm the final enacted position.
• Registered-person methodology limits: The Civil Financial Penalties Methodology for registered persons is stated to apply to registered persons only and, per its scope description, excludes Category A insurance permit holders and certain general insurance mediation classes. A separate methodology for natural persons applies to individuals.
• SRDC reporting: For the 2024 supervisory risk data collection, Category A insurance permit holders that do not meet the 'in or from within' test are excused from the insurance business workbook (but must still complete the Section I footprint workbook), and independent registered non-Prescribed NPOs are not required to report.
• Savings provision: The Financial Penalties Order preserves the pre-2022-amendment penalty basis for cases where a notice of intent under Article 21C was issued before the 2022 amendment came into force.

The Decision-Making Process also lists situations where its procedural steps do not apply, including urgent action, decisions taken with the Subject's agreement, decisions with immediate statutory effect, and reduced-notice decisions such as scam website warnings.

Sources: Financial Services Commission (Financial Penalties) (Jersey) Order 2015 · Decision-Making Process (JFSC Policy) · Updates to our 2024 supervisory risk data collection (2024-09-27) · Feedback on consultation No. 3 2026 – amendments to the Civil Financial Penalties Methodology for Registered Persons · Consultation on Jersey Financial Services Commission Civil Penalties Extension (2021-07-07)

Enforcement and penalties

The Financial Services Commission (Financial Penalties) (Jersey) Order 2015 sets four penalty bands, with maxima differing for registered persons and for individuals. The consolidated Order reflects amendments through the 2026 Amendment Order, which reintroduced monetary caps for Bands 1, 2 and 2A.

Penalty bands

• Band 1: Repeated failure (more than once in two years) to notify the Commission of a matter required by a Code, after a prior written warning: up to the lower of 4% of average annual turnover or 100,000 pounds for a registered person, or 10,000 pounds for an individual.
• Band 2: A contravention not rectified within a reasonable Commission-set timeframe: up to the lower of 6% of average annual turnover or 4,000,000 pounds for a registered person, or 200,000 pounds for an individual.
• Band 2A: A negligent contravention causing or risking specified harms (public financial loss, damage to Jersey's reputation or economic interests, jeopardising anti-financial-crime efforts, or done for commercial gain): up to the lower of 7% of average annual turnover or 4,000,000 pounds for a registered person, or 300,000 pounds for an individual.
• Band 3: An intentional or reckless contravention involving those specified harms: up to 8% of average annual turnover for a registered person, or 400,000 pounds for an individual.

Average annual turnover is based on the registered person's business activities in or from Jersey over the preceding five financial years (or shorter period of registration), and for trust company business with an affiliation includes turnover of all affiliation members. The JFSC applies published step-by-step methodologies (14 steps for registered persons, an equivalent multi-step process for natural persons) that score seriousness against its Guiding Principles, adjust for aggravating and mitigating factors, add back profit, cap at the statutory maximum, consider ability to pay, and apply any settlement discount.

Settlement discounts

• Stage 1: Up to 50% discount before conclusion of the Investigation stage.
• Stage 2: Up to 25% discount before conclusion of the Executive review stage.
• Stage 3: Up to 5% discount before conclusion of the Board DMP Committee consideration. The maximum available discount within a stage is not applied automatically.

Other sanctions and powers

• Available sanctions: Beyond civil financial penalties, the JFSC may issue public censure statements, restrict or prevent an individual from working in a supervised sector, and revoke a firm's licence. Penalties, restrictions and revocations are accompanied by a public statement of reasons.
• Directions against individuals: Under Article 23 of the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 the JFSC may direct that an individual not perform any function or hold any position in a licensed business; breaching such a direction, or knowingly allowing a person to act in contravention of it, is an offence under Article 23(15) and 23(15A).
• Appeal: A penalised person may appeal to the Royal Court of Jersey under Article 21F on the ground that the JFSC's decision on imposition or amount was unreasonable.

Published enforcement notices illustrate the regime in practice, with penalties (after a 50% early-settlement discount) including 19,211.73 pounds against Belasko Jersey Limited, 86,803.19 pounds against Garfield Bennett Trust Company Limited, 115,575 pounds against Equity Trust (Jersey) Limited, 381,010 pounds against Sanne Fiduciary Services Limited, 498,000 pounds against Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Plc Jersey Branch, and 803,661.17 pounds against IQ EQ (Jersey) Limited, plus combined penalties against the three SGKH entities. In the Jersey Post Limited case the JFSC found a Band 2A penalty warranted but exercised its discretion to impose a zero penalty given the potential impact on the firm and third parties.

Sources: Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998 · Financial Services Commission (Financial Penalties) (Jersey) Order 2015 · Civil Financial Penalties on Natural Persons: Methodology for Determining the Amount · Civil Financial Penalties on Registered Persons: Methodology for determining the amount · Our approach to enforcement · Regulatory Settlements (Issued 2022-02-10) · Feedback on consultation No. 3 2026 – amendments to the Civil Financial Penalties Methodology for Registered Persons · Garfield Bennett Trust Company Limited (2025-08-06) · Jersey Post Limited (2024-11-08) · Belasko Jersey Limited (2024-10-11) · Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Plc, Jersey Branch (LBCM, Jersey Branch) (2022-08-12) · IQ EQ (Jersey) Limited (formerly, First Names (Jersey) Limited) (2022-07-01) · SGKH Entities (2021-02-16) · SWM Limited (SWM) (2020-06-29) · Equity Trust (Jersey) Limited (Equity) (2020-06-01) · Sanne Fiduciary Services Limited (SFSL) (2019-07-17) · Ms Gisele Helene Le Miere (R) (2017-02-09)