In 2013, Jersey Finance commissioned a strategic review of Jersey’s finance industry which set out a blueprint for the future of the island’s financial services industry.
At the time, a total of 21 initiatives across Jersey Finance, Government and the Jersey Financial Services Commission were identified, which are still very much at the heart of the strategy and much progress has been made in delivering these. However, in light of the triggering of Brexit and other significant changes and developments within the finance industry particular in the digital arena, it was felt that a review and update of the strategy was much needed.
Work on the project commenced in May and since then Jersey Finance has held a number of workshops and conducted around 50 interviews with representatives from the finance industry, government and the regulator for the two main workstreams of the project:
Workstream A has been focused on potential outcomes of Brexit, where Jersey Finance has been able to assess the Brexit landscape, analyse possible scenarios and the impact on Jersey, with a core focus on the financial services sector.
Workstream B has been focused on digital development where Jersey Finance has been able to assess the status of digital development in Jersey’s finance industry. They have created, analysed and refined a long list of potential initiatives which will now be scoped out further in phase two of the project.
The work on phase one of the project has now been concluded and Jersey Finance will reconvene for phase two in September. The period between the two phases of the project will allow the organisation to continue to monitor the political landscape over the summer as conversations between the EU and the UK progress, and further assess and scope the digital initiatives identified.