Implementing a new South East Asia strategy, further embedding sustainable finance principles and an acute focus on digital upskilling are amongst the priorities for Jersey’s finance industry in 2023, as outlined at this year’s Jersey Finance annual review event held recently (20 January).
Speaking at the event, entitled ‘Global Horizons’, the senior team at Jersey Finance explored some of the key achievements from the past 12 months to an audience of more than 300 delegates from across the industry, financial services regulator and Government, and set out the major areas of focus for the coming year.
As well as delivering their own presentations, speakers – including Chairman Jason Laity, CEO Joe Moynihan, Deputy CEO Amy Bryant, Head of Legal and Technical Lisa Springate, Global Head of Business Development Allan Wood, and Head of Marketing Louise Burrows – also took part in a panel session answering questions from the audience.
During the event, the team highlighted that Jersey Finance had been involved in more than 60 global events, participated in almost 200 strategic engagements, held more than 2,600 gatekeeper meetings and input into 20 industry consultations over 2022. Looking forward, they also discussed a number of priorities for the year ahead, in particular:
- Plans to implement its South East Asia strategy, including formally establishing a presence in Singapore
- Building out its fintech strategy through a renewed series of targeted events and the launch of a new fintech ‘match-making’ platform in conjunction with Digital Jersey
- Further embedding sustainable principles across the industry’s sectors, building on the achievements of the first two years of its Sustainable Finance Strategy
- Fresh efforts to nurture a sustainable, cutting-edge and digitally-literate local workforce, through a new ‘Future Fit’ workstream, working with Government and other organisations
- Significant ongoing efforts across industry, Government and regulator to prepare Jersey for its MONEYVAL assessment later this year
Introducing the event, Jason Laity pointed to the fact that 2023 marks the final year in Jersey Finance’s current four-year business plan, with the organisation set to publish its new four-year plan later in 2023:
“There’s no doubt that 2022 was a challenging year. However, Jersey’s finance industry came out of it in pretty good shape. In particular, we made really good strides in our key sustainable finance strategy and in evolving our fintech environment. These two areas are going to be pivotal as we move deeper into a purpose-driven, digitally-enabled financial landscape over the coming years.
“This is important as we look forward to 2023, because it underlines that we are a dynamic, growing and adaptable centre for financial services offering a stable, high quality, professional ecosystem.”
In his update, CEO Joe Moynihan set out the priorities for the year ahead, commenting:
“We are now working in a post-Covid world, but it is a world that is still highly challenging, volatile and uncertain. For Jersey as an IFC, we need to remain alive in 2023 to the changing geopolitical landscape, global economic recovery, climate change, supply chain issues, considerable disruption to the energy sector, the ongoing rise of sustainability and digitisation, and the shifting nature of skills.
“All of these are pertinent to our industry – but I believe that our focus on championing Jersey as a global, innovative, sustainable, inclusive and supportive IFC positions us well.”
