Meet our teams

The JFSC provide its regulatory services across five main divisions. Each division is made up teams with valuable specialities and experience working together to provide a balanced regulatory service contributing to the long-term success of Jersey as an International Financial Centre.

We are responsible for regulating, developing and supervising Jersey’s financial services industry. We aim to deliver balanced, progressive, risk-based financial regulation, built on insight, integrity and expertise. To enable us to do this effectively we operate across five main divisions, with each division being made up of teams with valuable specialities and experience that work together to enable us to deliver our mission and statutory responsibilities.

What Supervision do

The Supervision division's primary function is to oversee the financial services industry to ensure relevant legal obligations and regulatory requirements are met.  As part of this we continually assess whether existing or emerging risks, to which Jersey is exposed, are being effectively managed. We operate a risk-based approach to our supervisory activities, ensuring that we focus our resources and activities to those business that pose the greatest potential regulatory risk to Jersey's reputation as an International Finance Centre.

Our supervisory activity takes several forms, we; visit businesses directly and engage with key personnel, request and assess information and data, conduct reviews meetings, examine trends and assess risks.  Whilst our remit is to ensure regulated businesses and individuals meet their relevant legal and regulatory obligations, we also aim to build regulatory capability within Jersey’s financial services industry through education and engagement.

Supervision is the largest division of the JFSC and has several sub teams:

• Central Authorisations is a centralised unit for authorisation and cessation activities for all regulated businesses, products and individuals. This unit is our first line of defence in our supervisory model
• Financial Crime Examination Unit is a dedicated financial crime unit, focusing on anti-money laundering / countering the financing of terrorism / countering proliferation financing, targeted sanctions and anti-bribery and corruption. The team coordinates and delivers a programme of examinations, ensuring businesses are complying with statutory and regulatory requirements relating to financial crime
• Supervisory Examination Unit is responsible for coordinating and delivering a dedicated programme of examinations across all sectors of Jersey’s regulated community. This team’s primary focus is to conduct a programme of thematic examinations and examinations in response to a known or perceived risk within a particular entity.
• Our Relationship Managed Supervision teams manage the relationship directly with those businesses considered to present the greatest risk to the JFSC’s guiding principles. We supervise banking business,  fund services business, trust company business and investment business and insurance. Supervisors in these units remain sector-focused, ensuring we retain specialist knowledge. They manage a portfolio of businesses, using a risk based approach to engagement, which involves increased face-to-face activities and regular dialogue, outreach and review meetings.
• Our Pooled Supervision Unit currently supervises businesses that are considered to present a lower potential risk. A number of these are designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBP) such as lawyers, accountants and estate agents.  In light of the requirement to supervise Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) from early 2023, PSU will likely merge with our New Regimes team to have supervisory oversight of the DNFBP, NPO and VASP sectors.  
• The Heightened Risk Response (HRR) team supports the effective risk-based supervision of entities where significant and material regulatory concerns have been identified resulting in the need for intensified supervisory focus. The primary aim of HRR is to support Supervisors by overseeing an appropriate and timely conclusion to matters giving rise to significant and material regulatory concerns.

What Registry do

Another of our core functions is to operate the Companies Registry which registers Jersey companies, partnerships, foundations and business names.

Our Registry responsibilities include:

• acting as Jersey’s first line of defence (second line for regulated businesses) for AML/CFT defence checks
• assessing and recording beneficial ownership and control details
• monitoring and vetting adherence to the Sound Business Practice Policy

Each new application is considered against our guiding principles which are:

• reducing risk to the public of financial loss due to dishonesty, incompetence, malpractice or the financial unsoundness of financial service providers
• protecting and enhancing the reputation and integrity of Jersey in commercial and financial matters
• safeguarding the best economic interests of Jersey
• countering financial crime both in Jersey and elsewhere

Our Registry maintains 15 Registers within Jersey and currently provide services to over 39 thousand entities and 22 thousand business names.

Our Registry Supervision Examination Unit is responsible for coordinating and delivering a dedicated programme of examinations across all Jersey Registered entities (Companies, Partnerships and Foundations. This team’s primary focus is to conduct a programme of thematic examinations and examinations in response to a known or perceived risk within a particular entity.

What our support functions do

Our support functions facilitate the core business functions of the JFSC by delivering services in the following areas: Finance, Facilities, Technology, Data, Project and Change Management, People & Culture, Communications and other operational activity. Our team of professionals offer their services in alignment with best practice and industry guidelines in their different professions and support the JFSC to be a high performing regulator.

What Enforcement do

Our Enforcement team investigates and, where appropriate, takes or proposes action against businesses and individuals which do not comply with our regulatory and legal requirements. We investigate actual and potential cases of serious regulatory misconduct.

Where breaches are particularly serious or efforts to address shortcomings fail, we will use our statutory powers and are prepared to impose a range of sanctions. These include:

• restricting or preventing people from working in the finance industry without our consent
• revoking or placing a condition on a business licence
• issuing public statements
• imposing civil financial penalties
• referring cases to the States of Jersey Police or Law Officer's Department for consideration of criminal prosecution.

The Enforcement division consists of two teams: the Enforcement Operations team and the Enforcement Intelligence team.

Broadly, the Operations team investigates concerns of serious failures to comply with the requirements of Jersey’s Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Terrorist Financing (CFT) regime and, where appropriate, pursues effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions. The Intelligence team collates, develops and disseminates AML/CFT intelligence in a timely manner and works closely with internal divisions of the JFSC, local law enforcement and other appropriate agencies, and international regulators in doing so.

What Policy and Risk do

We are a group of two units that are different but align together to support both the internal and external aspects of the JFSC. The Policy team keep domestic laws, regulations, and codes up to global standards. We work with industry, Government of Jersey, peer regulators and international standards setting bodies to ensure that regulation is appropriate and does not unduly disadvantage Jersey’s financial services industry – a careful balance. We share our policy development work with our Financial Crime Policy advisers who focus specifically on AML/CFT and sanctions. The Risk team is primarily responsible for overseeing the functioning of JFSC’s enterprise risk management framework, which dictates how we identify, measure, manage and report on risk across the business. We do this primarily through data collection, data modelling and data analysis used to influence day to day supervisory activity. We horizon scan to ensure we are prepared for the future. The Communications and Marketing team delivers internal and external communications and digital strategies, designed to support the JFSC in meeting its mission. We are directly involved with positioning the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) as a high performing, respected regulator both locally and internationally. This team leads on engagement with industry, external stakeholders and our employees.