Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Jersey Evening Post has reported that both Jersey and Guernsey have opposed the move, saying that to sign up to the EUSD before their competitors could damage the finance industry.

Jersey’s current position is that it will do so when everyone else does – when there is a ‘level playing field’ – but the report states that Jersey should get on with it, and calls on the UK to put pressure on other countries to sign up too.

A "level playing field" ? This is the concept that seems to have been launched by Luxembourg, you know the jurisdiction where economic and financial crime does not exist according to officials and bankers but was ranked number 2 on the Financial Secrecy Index. "The smooth functioning of the internal market should not be forgotten and we must ensure there is a level playing field for the principal financial centres.” , Luc Frieden said late October.

In 2008 the Island’s framework to counter money laundering and terrorist financing is to be the subject of a review by the International Monetary Fund. Jersey will be assessed against the international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (“FATF”). The amendments to this draft Law have been formulated to achieve a number of the criteria set out in the 40 Recommendations and 9 Special Recommendations of the FATF, against which Jersey will be assessed and also to address inconsistencies in the current operation of the Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law, 1999, (“POCL”) the Drug Trafficking Offences (Jersey) Law, 1988 (“DTOL”) and the Terrorism (Jersey) Law, 2002 (“TL”).

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Bob Sherwood today published in the Financial Times an interesting article relating to Jersey.

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