Jersey Finance has said it will continue to monitor the UK’s Brexit negotiations closely but that they will not affect Jersey’s position as an international finance centre.
The UK formally notified the European Union of its intention to cease to be a member state on Wednesday. Negotiations will now begin towards a deadline of 30 March 2019, when the UK will exit the union.
According to Jersey Finance, regardless of the outcome of these negotiations, the ability of Jersey’s finance industry to access the EU as a third country will remain unchanged. It says the UK remains Jersey’s largest trading partner for financial services.
Geoff Cook (pictured), CEO, Jersey Finance, said: “There is clearly uncertainty about the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, and what the relationship between the UK and EU will look like in two years’ time, but for Jersey’s financial services industry, trade with the EU and UK is governed by bilateral agreements which are unaffected by Brexit.
"Our access to European markets continues under the same terms, and we continue to be a conduit for investment into the UK and EU.”
According to Jersey Finance, an independent report last year concluded that Jersey was a conduit for €188bn of foreign investment and supported almost 90,000 jobs in the EU.
It also found that Jersey was a conduit for nearly £500bn of foreign investment into the UK, helping the UK to generate around £4.5bn in tax revenues each year and supporting 250,000 British jobs.
However, a decade ago Jersey’s finance industry recognised the importance of diversification, and began a strategy of developing business revenue streams from the rest of the world, Cook said.
“Whilst we continued to nurture our traditional business sources, and recognise that the UK will continue to be Jersey’s largest trading partner, we have also pushed out into growth markets with the result that, today, half of the investment we handle originates from outside of the UK time zone,” he said.