Consultation on proposal to change trust company business fees No.10 2023

The Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) invites comments on this consultation. Comments should reach Jersey Finance Limited by 15 December 2023.

Responses should be sent to:

Lisa Springate

Jersey Finance Limited

4th Floor

Sir Walter Raleigh House

48-50 Esplanade

St Helier

Jersey

JE2 3QB

Direct Line:  +44 (0) 1534 836029

Office Line:  +44 (0) 1534 836000

Email: [email protected]

Alternatively, responses may be sent directly to us by 15 December 2023. If you require any assistance, clarification or wish to discuss any aspect of the proposal prior to formulating a response, please contact us.

The JFSC contact is:

Antony Perez

Jersey Financial Services Commission

PO Box 267

14-18 Castle Street

St Helier

Jersey

JE4 8TP

Telephone:  +44 (0) 1534 822000

Email: [email protected]

It is our policy to provide the content of responses for inspection unless specifically requested otherwise.

It is the policy of Jersey Finance Limited (unless otherwise requested or agreed) to collate all responses and share them verbatim with us on an anonymised basis (with reference made only to the type of respondent, e.g. individual, law firm, trust company etc.) This collated, anonymised response will, typically, be placed in JFL’s permanent electronic archive which is currently open to all JFL members.

Glossary of terms

Commission/JFSC	Jersey Financial Services Commission
Commission Law	Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998, as amended
FSJL	Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998, as amended
TCB	Trust Company Business

1 Consultation

1.1 Basis for consultation

1.1.1   We are issuing this consultation paper in accordance with Article 8(3) of the Commission Law, under which the JFSC “may, in connection with the carrying out of its functions […] consult and seek the advice of such persons or bodies whether inside or outside Jersey as it considers appropriate”.

1.1.2   In addition, Article 15(3) of the Commission Law, requires that before the JFSC introduce and publish any fee

“[The JFSC] must first publish a report that must include:

(a)   details of the duty or power for or in respect of which the fee is to be determined;

(b)   details of the proposed fee;

(ba)details of the extent (if any) to which any penalties received have reduced the level of fee that would otherwise have been proposed;

(c) a request for comments on the level of the proposed fee; and

(d)   a date, that is at least 28 days after the publication of the report, before which those comments may be made to the Commission”.

1.1.3   Article 15(4) of the Commission Law provides that should the JFSC and a representative body be unable to agree a new fee or above RPI fee increase that we must request the Bailiff to appoint three Jurats to consider if the proposed fees are unreasonable.

1.1.4   The JFSC considers the representative bodies for the TCB sector to be those listed at Appendix A; that each of the proposals within this consultation is reasonable; and that this consultation constitutes such a report as required by the Commission Law.

1.2 Who is affected by the proposed changes

1.2.1   The amendments to fees will affect any person applying for, or having already been granted a registration to undertake trust company business under the FSJL.

1.3 Responding to the consultation

1.3.1   We invite comments from interested parties on the content of this consultation, which should be received by either JFL or the JFSC no later than 15 December 2023.

1.4 Next steps

1.4.1   Following this consultation, we will publish feedback. The final fees notice will take effect on or before 1 January. Fee notices will be issued via myJFSC. Businesses will receive an email prompt to notify them that an invoice is awaiting payment.

2 The JFSC

2.1 Overview

2.1.1   We are a statutory body corporate established under the Commission Law. We are responsible for the supervision and development of financial services provided in or from within Jersey.

2.1.2   Article 15(2) of the Commission Law provides that fees set by us are to be retained and must, together with any other income:

2.1.2.1 Raise sufficient income to meet our liabilities;

2.1.2.2 Cover our expenses; and

2.1.2.3 Provide a reserve for such amount we consider as necessary.

2.2 The JFSC’s functions

2.2.1   Article 5 of the Commission Law prescribes that we are responsible for:

2.2.1.1 The supervision and development of financial services provided in or from within Jersey

2.2.1.2 Providing the Government of Jersey, any Minister for External Relations and Financial Services or any other public body with reports, advice, assistance, and information in relation to any matter connected with financial services

2.2.1.3 Preparing and submitting to the Minister for External Relations and Financial Services recommendations for the introduction, amendment or replacement of legislation appertaining to financial services, companies, and other forms of business structure

2.2.1.4 Such functions in relation to financial services or such incidental or ancillary matters:

As are required or authorised by or under any enactment, or

As the Government of Jersey may, by Regulations, transfer; and

2.2.1.5 Such other functions as are conferred on the JFSC by any other Law or enactment.

2.3 Guiding principles

2.3.1   Article 7 of the Commission Law provides that in exercising our functions we may take into account any appropriate matter, but that we will have particular regard to:

2.3.1.1 The reduction of the risk to the public of financial loss due to dishonesty, incompetence, or malpractice by, or the financial unsoundness of, persons carrying on the business of financial services in or from within Jersey

2.3.1.2 The protection and enhancement of the reputation and integrity of Jersey in commercial and financial matters

2.3.1.3 The best economic interests of Jersey; and

2.3.1.4 The need to counter financial crime in both Jersey and elsewhere.

3 Proposals

3.1 Funding requirement

3.1.1   In order for us to obtain sufficient funding to carry out our supervisory objectives and to ensure our ongoing financial resilience, we need to raise £4m in fees from the TCB sector.

3.2 Regulatory fee proposals

3.2.1   The Commission Law contemplates increases to fees in line with RPI, which was recorded as 10.1% in September 2023. Although the cost of regulation continues to rise well in excess of this metric, our ongoing focus on cost control means that the proposed fee increase can be limited to this amount, below that proposed in the 2023 Business Plan of 2% above RPI.

3.2.2   No civil financial penalties have been levied on entities in the TCB sector which would be applied to reduce these fees.

3.2.3   Draft fees notices reflecting the proposals can be found in Appendix B.

3.2.4   Question:  Do you agree with the proposed fee increase of RPI (10.1%)?

3.3 Supervisory effort

3.3.1   We are monitoring and managing our costs to deliver efficient and effective supervision of the TCB sector.

3.3.2   The threat risk profile of the TCB sector remains high as set out in the National Risk Assessment: Money Laundering Update issued in September 2023. There is also a significant amount of merger and acquisition activity in the sector which contributes to the short term risk profile. The JFSC expects these underlying drivers of risk activity to continue.  As a consequence of these factors, and the growth of business volumes, the level of supervisory risk mitigation activity is high, including more frequent policy reviews, onsite examinations, investigations and remediation oversight.

3.3.3   The JFSC is committed to maintaining the Island’s compliance with global standards which apply to a highly developed international financial centre such as Jersey. The JFSC is engaged with international efforts to shape the applicable regulations and assess their implementation.

3.3.4   The JFSC has taken measures to improve its efficiency and agile working methods during 2023, such as broadening the supervisory toolkit to include sector-based assessments, continuing to improve the digitisation of processes and absorbing additional work contributing to the Moneyval assessment.  The JFSC will continue to improve the efficiency of its operations during 2024.

 

Appendix A - list of representative bodies who have been sent this consultation paper

Institute of Directors (Jersey branch)

Jersey Association of Trust Companies

Jersey Compliance Officers Association

Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (Jersey branch)

 

Appendix B – Draft TCB Fees Notice

Notice of Fees

Published in accordance with:Article 15 of the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998, as amended

Payable by or in relation to:Trust Company Business

Pursuant to:Articles 8(3) and 9(6) of the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998, as amended; and

Article 15(6) of the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998, as amended

Commencement date:The fees set out in this notice and the attached schedule are effective for the period from 1 January – 31 December 2024

1   Interpretation

1.1   In this notice, unless the context otherwise requires –

affiliation	in respect of a registered person or an applicant for registration, means a group of persons carrying on or intending to carry on trust company business the members of which have agreed that one member will be the affiliation leader;
affiliation leader	in respect of an affiliation, means the member of the affiliation which has agreed to be the prime source of contact between the JFSC and the members of the affiliation with respect to compliance with the JFSC’s prudential rules and conduct of business regulation;
average	in respect of the calculation of the average number of employees or licences on the relevant date(s) means the arithmetic mean of each number rounded to the nearest whole number;
due date	means the due date for payment of any fee specified within this Notice of Fees or otherwise the due date for payment specified within an invoice for fees issued by the JFSC;
JFSC	means the Jersey Financial Services Commission;
Law	means the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998, as amended;
non-affiliated person	in respect of an applicant for registration or a registered person, means a person who is neither an affiliation leader nor a participating member;
trust company business employee	in respect of a registered person, means – (a)   a person employed, either under a contract of service or a contract for services, by the registered person to assist in the provision of trust company business (other than solely to provide filing, secretarial, information technology support or any similar general support service); and

	(b)   if, on the relevant date there exists an agreement for the provision to the registered person of the services of such persons by another person not trading in Jersey, shall be taken to include the number of such persons as the registered person estimates would be required to be employed full time to undertake the work undertaken by the persons whose services are to be provided. With respect to the above: (a)   employees who do not have anything to do with trust company business (i.e. in a multi-licensed firm or an entity which also carries out unregulated business) may be excluded; (b)   employees who are solely employed to carry out activities for the trust company itself who would never deal with clients/client matters (for example, the firm’s own HR or IT support staff) may be excluded; (c) genuine ‘facilities’-type staff who might deal with client matters but in a more ‘generic’ way (for example, receptionists) may be excluded; (d)   the mention of ‘secretarial’ staff as an exemption does not include those carrying out client company secretarial work; and (e)   compliance staff who work on trust company business issues are trust company business employees;
participating member	in respect of an affiliation, means a member of the affiliation who is not its affiliation leader;
relevant date(s)	in respect of a year of registration of a registered person, means the 1st January in that year and each of the preceding four years of registration except for the year the person applied to be registered when it means the date of the application for registration; where there are fewer than five relevant dates for the purpose of a calculation within the Schedule, the averages calculated will be of each relevant date that is available for the calculation until there are sufficient relevant dates to perform the calculation as specified.

1.2   In calculating for registration fee purposes the number of trust company business employees of a managed trust company, those trust company business employees that form part of the calculation in respect of the manager’s own registration shall not be taken into account.

1.3   In calculating for registration fee purposes the number of trust company business employees of a registered person on the relevant date any trust company business employee employed for 25 hours or less during the week in which the relevant date occurs shall be taken into account on a 50% headcount basis (with the total number of trust company business employees being rounded up to the next full number where necessary).

2   Application fee

2.1   The fee to accompany an application for registration to carry on trust company business shall be the amount calculated in accordance with the table set out in the Schedule.

3   Registration fees

3.1   Except as provided by paragraph 3.5, a person registered to carry on trust company business shall pay a registration fee of an amount calculated in accordance with the table set out in the Schedule.

3.2   The due date for the JFSC to receive the registration fee is:

3.2.1 28 February, if the firm is already registered on 1 January; or

3.2.2 otherwise on registration.

3.3   If a person is registered after 1st July but before the following 1st January the registration fee payable on registration shall be half the fee otherwise payable.

3.4   Where a registered person has acquired another person registered to carry on trust company business for each relevant date the registered person shall included in the calculation set out in the Schedule:

3.4.1 the trust company business employees of the acquired person; and

3.4.2 the number of classes of trust company business undertaken by the acquired person.

3.5   The JFSC may remit a registration fee in whole or in part if –

3.5.1 the person liable to pay the fee is a member of an affiliation; and

3.5.2 in the opinion of the JFSC the total of the registration fees payable by the members of the affiliation is unreasonably high having regard to the trust company business carried on by those members.

4   Change of control fee

4.1   Where a registered person applies to become, to cease being, or to merge with an Affiliation Leader or Participating Member they shall pay a fee calculated in accordance with the Application fee column set out in the Schedule.

4.2   Where a shareholder controller acquires an interest in a registered person, either through a one-off, or series of transactions, so that the proportion of the share capital or voting rights held by the person in the registered person reaches or exceeds 20%, 33% or 50%, or so that the registered person becomes the subsidiary of such a shareholder controller, they shall pay a fee calculated in accordance with the Application fee column set out in the Schedule.

4.3   The fee referred to in paragraph 4.2 shall be pro-rated according to the proportion of the share capital or voting rights acquired by the shareholder controller.

4.4   For registered persons subject to heightened supervision or enforcement, an additional fee of £1,270 shall be payable under paragraph 4.

5   Alteration fee

5.1   A fee of £505 shall be paid by a registered person who applies for an alteration so as to reflect all or any of the following:

5.1.1 a change of the name of the registered person;

5.1.2 the addition, alteration or removal of each licence condition pursuant to an application from the registered person; or

5.1.3 the removal of each class of licence pursuant to an application from the registered person.

5.2   A fee payable in accordance with paragraph 5.1 shall not be payable where a fee payable in accordance with paragraph 4 is also payable.

6   Late payment of fees and/or late submission of fees information

6.1   If any fee is not received by the JFSC by the due date, an additional late payment fee of 5% of the unpaid principal amount will be applied on the day after the due date, and on the 1st day of each calendar month after that.

6.2   If the firm does not supply the required information to calculate its registration fee by the due date, an administration fee of £200 will be charged the day after the due date, and on the 1st day of each calendar month after that while the information is still outstanding. This is in addition to the late payment fee set out in paragraph 7.1 which will be calculated once the information has been submitted.

7   Late filing fees

7.1   If a registered person fails to file or deliver any document to the JFSC under the provisions of the Law or under any provisions of any Order issued in accordance with the Law on or before the date that the document becomes due, the registered person shall be liable to pay a fee of £100 for each complete month or part thereof that the document remains un-filed or undelivered unless the registered person has given the Commission prior written notice of the reasons for the late filing or delivery of a document and the JFSC has agreed in writing that the filing may be late. Any such later agreed date shall become the due date for the purposes of the calculation and the payment of late filing fees.

 

Schedule: Fees

Any class or combination of classes (not including class O or natural persons carrying on a single class of trust company business – see below)	£2,280 for an application to register a non-affiliated person £2,280 for an application to register an affiliation leader £290 for an application to register a participating member	In the case of a non-affiliated person – £3,235; plus £2,080 multiplied by the average number of classes of trust company business undertaken by the non-affiliated person on the relevant dates; plus a sum calculated – (a)   on the basis of a count of the average  number of trust company business employees employed on the relevant dates in the trust company business of the non-affiliated person; and (b)   at the rate of – £690 for each of the first 10 employees in that count £340 for each of the next 10 employees in that count £275 for each of the next 30 employees in that count £240 for each of the next 50 employees in that count £165 for each of the remainder of the employees in that count. In the case of an affiliation – £3,235 for the affiliation leader; plus in respect of each member of the affiliation (that is, the affiliation leader and every participating member) – the sum of £1,310 multiplied by the average number of classes of trust company business undertaken by the member; plus
Classes of trust company business of registered person	Application fee	Registration fee

Natural persons carrying on a single class of trust company business	£1,045	£1,310
Class O	£1,145 for an application to register a non-affiliated person £1,145 for an application to register an affiliation leader £230 for an application to register a participating member	In the case of a non-affiliated person - £2,590. In the case of an affiliation – £2,590 for the leader of the affiliation, plus £1,030 for each participating member.
		a sum calculated – (a)   on the basis of a count of the average number of trust company business employees employed on the relevant dates in the trust company business of the affiliation;  and (b)   at the rate of – £690 for each of the first 10 employees in that count £340 for each of the next 10 employees in that count £275 for each of the next 30 employees in that count £240 for each of the next 50 employees in that count £165 for each of the remainder of the employees in that count.
Classes of trust company business of registered person	Application fee	Registration fee