Building better processes

Our five-year change programme officially came to an end in 2019. One of its main objectives was for the JFSC to become more e-enabled and achieve enhanced information management by overhauling our processes.

We have made significant progress and laid some strong foundations so we can continue to improve our operations and make it easier for all our stakeholders to interact with us. Modernising our systems and digital capabilities was a key driver for this and 2019 was the culmination of a number of large projects designed to automate and update our infrastructure.

We reviewed our effectiveness in rolling out technology over the period of our change programme. It is now evident that the capacity to implement and constantly develop technologically-enabled processes is a core skill for any regulator and we are committed to using our recent experience to get even better, as we move on to the next stage of our evolution.

Accepting documents online

During the year, we successfully moved more of our registry and regulated operations online. By using our portal, certain regulated businesses can now provide us with their audited financial statements online and registered trust companies can submit applications for non-domiciled non-fund structures or non-fund Jersey unit trusts. Equally, banks were able to send us their Basel III updated prudential reporting through the portal in 2019.

Launching our risk model

As covered earlier in this annual report, we successfully launched the first iteration of our risk model in late 2019. Following extensive scoping, planning, development and testing, its delivery was a considerable milestone and will shape the way we supervise moving forward, broadening our understanding of risk and allowing us to apply our finite resources where they are needed most.

Going live with our new website

Our previous website was 20 years old so its replacement was somewhat overdue. Redesigning and building our new website was a substantial project, which required expertise from inside and outside the organisation.

Delivered in December 2019, the new website is responsive on all modern devices, easy to navigate with optimised search functionality, and properly integrated with our other JFSC systems. Before designing and launching the site, we engaged heavily with our stakeholders to get their feedback. We will continue to interact with all users of the site and test new functionality with them to make sure we are continuously improving the website to meet their needs.

Handling data

Due to our commitments to support the National Risk Assessment and to undertake our own annual data collection exercises, we now handle large volumes of data, in addition to the information housed in our various registers.

Modernising our Registry

At the time of compiling this report, our Registry had made the recent move to completely digital operations. This transition would not have been possible without the foundations we had laid in previous years, and in particular during 2019. By the end of year, we had digitised 99% of all our outgoing transactions, such as certificates, correspondence and search results, and 90% of all incoming submissions such as forms and document searches.

We handle huge volumes of data through the Registry, particularly for beneficial ownership and control information. In 2018 we held more than 380,000 records – which rose to in excess of 410,000 in 2019. On average, our small team processes nearly 1,000 transactions per week for changes in owner and controller details.

To ease the manual burden until we implement completely new systems, we made further enhancements to our systems in 2019. We also completed a large data remediation project to verify administrating trust companies based on Registered Office. This covered some 35,000 businesses and means that our data is accurate and up-to-date.

Behind the scenes, we began the long-term work to improve customer access and experience through our portal and the scoping process to comprehensively overhaul our services, which will start to take shape in 2020 and beyond.

Preparing for our 2020 Registry Programme of Work, we also did the groundwork in 2019 for the Register of Directors, Accuracy and Integrity, and the Limited Liability Companies Register, which places us in a good position to deliver our new registry systems in the latter half of 2020.