Increasingly, though, it has been vital for Jersey to also draw on its ability to be agile and innovative, at a time that is dominated by economic and geopolitical volatility and rapid change – driven by inflationary pressures and a cost-of-living crisis to more seismic shifts prompted by war across Europe and the Middle East, political flux and widespread technological disruption.
Even when set against the turmoil of recent years, 2024 has the potential to go down in history as a pivotal inflection point, with elections in the US, UK and EU, as well as across Asia.
Such a backdrop has meant that Jersey’s core messages of stability and certainty, backed up by a commitment to high quality service levels, a robust legislative framework and first-class regulatory standards and balanced with a clear innovative mindset, have resonated keenly with investors, businesses and families looking for safe but progressive partner jurisdiction to help them realise their ambitions.
Breaking New Ground
From a Jersey Finance perspective, 2024 is a significant year in that it marks the adoption of our new four-year plan − a critical guide that sets out our strategic objectives around our purpose, vision and mission.
At its heart is a clear agenda for innovation, progress and an ambition to break new ground as an IFC, conscious of the rapidly shifting environment we operate in.
It highlights, for instance, our ongoing work to build and diversify our overseas markets proposition. In the US, for example, having established an office in New York five years ago, we are now actively exploring how we can deepen our connectivity in a hugely important growth market.
As well as continuing to support the US fund manager community with their global fundraising ambitions we are also making inroads into the private wealth sector too, an area where Jersey has earned such a formidable reputation.
Meanwhile, Jersey is continuing to focus heavily on innovation in the technology and fintech space, driven by our aim for Jersey to be recognised as the easiest IFC to do business with remotely in a digital world.
A project in late 2023, for instance, saw Jersey Finance partner with Digital Jersey to launch a unique ‘match-making’ tool, ProMatch, that can foster greater collaboration between the ‘traditional’ financial services sector and Jersey’s booming digital community.
Thanks to this sort of forward-thinking approach, digital infrastructure and depth of digital expertise, Jersey is setting out its stall as a world-class centre for fintech and that will become increasingly important in delivering world class service to international clients in the years ahead.
In a related area, Jersey is continuing to push the boundaries in the virtual assets and tokenisation space too. Whilst Jersey has a good track record in this area having long supported virtual asset fund and tokenisation events, new regulatory guidance around virtual assets was published this year which aims to provide further clarity around Jersey’s leading capabilities in supporting and servicing the burgeoning virtual assets industry.
Keen to be a leading voice for progress in tokenisation, Jersey Finance also published new research this year, in conjunction with IFI Global, that looks at the evolution of virtual assets and the positive role IFCs like Jersey can have in supporting that evolution.
Sustainable finance continues to be an area subject to rapid evolution too and is increasingly embedded within the fabric of Jersey’s broad financial services proposition. It is absolutely Jersey’s objective to be regarded as a leading centre for sustainable finance and a huge amount of work has been done to create a sophisticated platform that can support investors with their growing sustainable finance ambitions.
In particular, Jersey Finance published a report in 2024 underlining the alignment Jersey has with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and its capabilities as a jurisdiction in delivering on them, whilst the Government of Jersey has recently undertaken a consultation on enhancing Jersey’s sustainable finance framework – all further underlining the desire to be at the forefront of the sustainable finance space.
Meanwhile, we are maintaining a focus on product and service innovation too. The hugely popular Jersey Private Fund (JPF), for instance, received new updated guidance this year that should further bolster its appeal amongst professional investors. Jersey’s Trust Law – which marks its 40th anniversary this year – is also to benefit from a number of enhancements this year and Jersey is becoming increasingly recognised for its Islamic Finance expertise, evidenced in particular through a report published this year on the Saudi Arabian NextGen demographic.
High Standards
In delivering on this innovative approach, Jersey’s robust, stable and high-quality platform is absolutely vital. As a jurisdiction we do not underestimate just how important it is for IFCs like Jersey to provide an environment that can help mitigate uncertainty and provide a stable, reliable platform for families, businesses, asset managers and investors.
As we talk to out contacts around the world, that stable, familiar, no-change environment is always one of the first things investors and gatekeepers say they like about Jersey.
It continues to be our focus to maintain that commitment to high standards in everything we do – which is why it was such welcome news that MONEYVAL’s positive report on Jersey this summer provided an endorsement of the efforts we put in as an industry and as an Island to uphold the very best standards when it comes to combatting financial crime and providing a robust, secure and highly professional ecosystem for cross-border financial services.
It is a report that fully supports our approach of aiming to be a responsible jurisdiction, an adopter of the very highest standards that can support investors and give them reassurance and confidence in the long run.
By focussing on nurturing both an innovative ecosystem and a regulatory framework of such a high standard, Jersey can continue to offer a platform that is both attractive to investors and plays a positive role in driving growth and prosperity around the world.
Looking Ahead
Jersey’s ability to achieve all this depends very much on the collaborative efforts of our government, regulator, industry bodies and other stakeholders – indeed, this joined-up approach was particularly evident throughout the MONEYVAL assessment process.
Over the coming pages, some of the Island’s leading minds will provide their thoughts on a number of key themes for Jersey’s IFC and no doubt echo the importance of this collaborative approach, which I feel genuinely differentiates Jersey from other IFCs. I sincerely thank all those contributors for making this latest edition of Jersey ~ First for Finance so insightful.
The concept of ‘permacrisis’ at a global level has been a consistent theme over the past year and there is no doubt that the road ahead is unlikely to be smooth.
However, Jersey is fully focussed on positioning itself as a different sort of IFC, one that is committed to bringing to market the sort of cutting-edge services global investors need, whilst retaining the certainty, stability and ingenuity that our reputation is rightly held for.
