The Guernsey Financial Services Commission has published its 2018 annual report and financial statements.
Among the themes explored in the report is the level of new financial services business coming to the island last year, with the investment sector in particular seeing an uplift in applications. Insurance linked securities also continued to see growth.
During 2018, the Commission worked with government and industry in developing new policy initiatives, including the Guernsey Green Fund Rules, as well as proposals for regulating lending and credit – those policy proposals are now with government for consideration.
On the financial front, 2018 was a strong year for the Commission in terms of income – a reflection, to some extent, of the buoyant year experienced by the industry.
On the expenditure side, much of the increase was attributable to a number of one-off projects that the Commission is undertaking to ensure the island has the right systems in place, as well as the legal costs incurred in taking forward enforcement cases.
The annual report also includes a new section on the Commission’s three-year business plan.
GFSC Chairman Cees Schrauwers said: “The plan sets out the focus for the next few years on key policy and operational areas and provides the context for the investment we will be making in a number of important regtech and suptech projects.
"These are designed to upgrade existing systems and improve the Commission’s capabilities and have been on hold due to the Commission’s financial position over the past few years.
“Given the Commission’s improved financial position, we have been able to fund our IT replacement programme as well as the other parts of our three-year business plan from reserves. In addition, taking into consideration our improved financial position, the Commissioners have decided, for the second year in succession, not to seek any increase in the current level of fees which our licensees pay.”
• The GFSC's 2018 annual report can be viewed here