Interviews  >  Heather Bestwick: The first lady of finance

Jersey Finance's new Technical Director, Heather Bestwick, talks to businesslife.je's Katie Le Quesne about her new role and the outlook for Jersey's finance industry.

The future of Jersey plc is inextricably bound up in the fortunes of the finance industry. Any hope of broadening the island's economic base by pump-priming another new industry, or by resuscitating those of farming and tourism, have not succeeded in any great measure. All the island's eggs remain firmly in one finance-based basket.

Jersey has won many accolades as a well-regulated and reputable finance centre, and assuming that there will always be a place for specialist financial centres, its future should be bright. But it's a much tougher world today than when the industry was first established, with tighter regulation, more competition, deeper suspicion – and let's not forget the global recession.

There's a lot, therefore, pinned on the performance of the industry's marketing organisation, Jersey Finance. With increasing financial help from government – its annual grant is around £2 million, and the public purse has also supported the opening of three overseas offices – people want to know exactly what it is that Jersey Finance does, whether it's doing it well enough, and whether it gives good value for money.

At the organisation's cutting edge is its Technical Director. Until now, only men have held this role – just two in fact, and both were accountants. Now for the first time it's a woman, and a lawyer to boot. Can a lawyer bring the specialist technical knowledge required to identify and develop new financial products that will maintain the industry's buoyancy in the current climate? Katie Le Quesne went along to meet Heather Bestwick to find out.

Until March, you were Managing Partner of Walkers law firm in Jersey, and your background is very different from the people who've held the post of Technical Director before. Have the objectives of the job changed?

Obviously I'll bring a different perspective to the role because I have a more detailed knowledge of the legal side of things, but the objectives of the job are the same: to facilitate the ongoing success of the finance industry here in Jersey, keeping all the products at the cutting edge, constantly refreshed, and making sure that legislation and regulations are keeping those products at the highest level.

So, very much an emphasis on horizon scanning. Are there more products in the pipeline?

Yes. We are constantly thinking of the next step, and an important role for Jersey Finance is to listen to the industry and make sure we see what it is picking up on, to have a better idea of what the next products might be. There's nothing I can disclose now, unfortunately, but there are a number of things on the back burner.

Can you give any hint about the kind of areas in which you can see opportunities for growth?

We're finalising regulations that will encourage more business between India and Jersey, and bring more investment into Jersey from Indian companies. This work will enable the merger of Indian and Jersey companies, something that can't happen at the moment, and is actually an amendment to the Companies Law. We see India as a huge growth area, probably on a par with the Far East.

When are we likely to see this new product?

It's quite a process and it can take some time. Initially, we have the working groups set up to talk about what they want, then the law has to be drafted, debated by the States and then heard by the Privy Council in the UK. Because of the length of the process, the idea is to constantly have things in the system so that there's always a constant stream of things coming up. There's a lot of background activity here which people don't see.

Leaving Walkers to take this job must have involved a cut in salary. What was the attraction?

I had been working in law for about 20 years and had risen through the ranks, from associate to partner to managing partner, and felt I had achieved as much there as I wanted to. I was looking for a new challenge. This is a role that will use all the skills I've acquired in my career to date. It's very varied and people-focused, dealing with different individuals from different sectors of the industry.

Jersey Finance has a role that many people find hard to understand. It has had a lot of criticism over the years and some people oppose the grant it gets from the Government. Are people too quick to criticise, or should you be doing more to explain what you do?

I think it probably stems from a lack of understanding of the role Jersey Finance has in the industry. We have put a lot of effort into community engagement and activity, but there is clearly still a lot to do. What we try to do is sell Jersey plc on the world stage, so I think that with the marketing focus externally directed rather than domestically or internally directed, it's easy for us to lose visibility here. But we do have a very active educational programme, where we go into schools and colleges to encourage young people to come into the finance industry, and we find this is a good way of dispelling misunderstandings.

With just a few months under your belt, how good a job do you think Jersey Finance does?

I've always thought it was an amazing organisation. When I was at Walkers, I was always incredibly impressed by what JFL did – I found that the information it pushed out and the updates to members were incredibly useful. When I worked in Cayman, I noticed that there was nothing similar to this. They had the Cayman Investment Board, now called Cayman Finance, but they don't have the marketing function or the technical function. It's a very different beast, and nowhere near as useful to the industry.

What are the most pressing challenges you see facing Jersey Finance now?

I think supporting members through difficult times and difficult markets, and making sure we provide them with the information and the tools to assist them in their marketing efforts. It really is a whole new ball game for financial firms now – in the past this business was much easier.

The Institute of Directors has published its support for your strategy of targeting China, Russia and India, but estimates it will take five years to increase Jersey's net income by only one per cent. What's your take on that?

You always have to be planning for the future. If you stay put, it's not a recipe for success at all. So, even if it does take five years to get to that stage, then we're going to be in a better position when we reach it than if we hadn't gone into that particular market. That's the mantra we have to live by.

The idea of Jersey and Guernsey cooperating more and sharing resources is always present, and it provokes strong feelings both ways. What do you think the future holds for the islands?

I think it's inevitable – and very sensible – that the two islands do cooperate, because we have the same interests. We're working together on the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, which could have a big impact on our funds industry – both here and in Guernsey – and our representatives are currently jointly meeting the EU Commission. Collaboration between the islands is already happening with high-level things, and it's going to be happening more and more. We are competing on all sorts of levels in the finance industry, but as the Channel Islands we have an awful lot to offer as an offshore jurisdiction. However, I don't think we'll ever see the day when we have joint marketing,

Neither of your predecessors stayed in the job for more than a few years. Do you see yourself being in the role of Technical Director for the long run?

I'm not thinking of leaving just yet! But it is the sort of role where it's good to have people coming in to it with a fresh pair of eyes to look at the job, and with energy and enthusiasm. The role does need to be refreshed, and shouldn't be regarded as a job for life. You need to have different people from different industry sectors coming in and bringing their skills. So just as we've had accountants, and me as a lawyer, who's to say that we shouldn't have someone in future from the banking or trusts industry?

You seem to be someone who likes a dynamic environment…

I do like a challenge, and its good to be in an environment where you have the opportunity to make a difference. I feel very privileged to be in this position to be honest – to be at the forefront of making regulations or amending legislation is an amazing role.

You give the impression that you enjoy working with people: are you good at building consensus?

I'd like to think I am. It's certainly a large part of the role, as I deal with people from different business sectors with different agendas. But the aim we're all working to is to keep the finance industry strong. The feeling of working for the common good here is quite refreshing.

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