Guernsey's revision of regulatory laws project completes

Legal developments
Objectives
Comment

Guernsey's long-term project to revise and restate its suite of regulatory laws has been completed, and the resulting laws came into effect on 1 November 2021.

Legal developments

The process, which commenced on 10 November 2014 with the publication by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) of a discussion paper, has culminated in a new Financial Services Business (Enforcement Powers) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2020 (the Enforcement Law), in which the powers of the GFSC in relation to enforcement, sanctions and penalties (criminal, civil and administrative) have been consolidated from the Financial Services Commission (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 1987 and the other regulatory laws. The Enforcement Law now also houses the market abuse provisions previously contained in the Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 1987.

In addition, the principal regulatory laws themselves have been amended and, in some cases, repealed and replaced as follows.

Objectives

The policy and resources committee described the principal objectives of the amendments as follows:

• ensure compliance with international and EU standards, including the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive regime;
• create efficiencies and ensure effective supervision;
• eliminate unjustified inconsistencies by ensuring consistency of text, process and procedure across the regulatory enforcement field, except to the extent necessary to take account of the differing supervisory needs of the individual financial sectors; and
• support the industry and future-proof the legislative regime.

Comment

While the changes have largely left the underlying licensing regime and exemptions available under the principal provisions of the regulatory laws untouched, many of the changes will impact on the authorisations and notifications required to be obtained or made during the operation of licensed businesses.(1)

For further information on this topic please contact Tim Clipstone, Sandie Lyne, Catherine Moore or Michaela Jesson at Ogier by telephone (+1 284 852 7300) or email ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]). The Ogier website can be accessed at www.ogier.com.

Endnotes

(1) For further information, please see:

• "The restated Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law";
• "Revision of fiduciary regulatory legislation";
• "The restated Banking Supervision (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law"; and
• "The new Enforcement Law in summary".