The Jersey Financial Services Commission has issued the following report on the effectiveness of the finance industry's response to Covid-19:
We have been working closely with the Government of Jersey to oversee the finance industry’s operational response to the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Overall, our regulated community has been proactive in its approach to business continuity planning, with many businesses partially or completely transitioning to remote working ahead of the government’s requirements for islanders to stay at home.
Businesses have been open and transparent with the JFSC about their contingency plans and any operational issues they have been facing. They have engaged with us from an early stage and reacted well in these exceptional circumstances.
There was only a very small number of exceptions where businesses were unable to move to immediate remote working at the time the government announced the lockdown.
These businesses have kept us informed of their activities and we have worked with them and the government to transition to an acceptable position.
Business effectiveness
There have not been any significant operational issues reported to us and the financial services industry has mostly achieved this outcome without evident deterioration in business effectiveness.
All regulated businesses have answered our requests for confirmation of their business continuity measures, numbers of essential workers, and details of their key point of contact.
We will continue to work closely with the government and the financial services industry to ensure we respond in an appropriate and timely manner to any further developments.
We will keep in regular contact with businesses to assess how they are managing in the current situation.
Equally, we expect businesses to take any reasonable additional steps to make sure they are prepared for any further potential challenges to their operations, staff and customers. This includes managing their financial resilience.
Any businesses that are facing, or anticipate, difficulties should contact their supervisors immediately.