G20 all-clear for finance
Friday 3rd April 2009, 3:00PM BST.
JERSEY’S finance leaders were celebrating today after the industry was given the all-clear following the long-feared G20 summit.
The Island was grouped together on a so-called ‘white list’ of jurisdictions that have met international standards of financial regulation and tax information exchange.
Jersey’s banking and finance leaders were today hoping that the inclusion on the list, released by the OECD, will end years of scrutiny of the Island’s finance industry.
Martyn Scriven, secretary of the Jersey Bankers Association, hailed Jersey’s inclusion on the list as the ‘most significant recent development’ for the Island’s finance industry.
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Now there is no way of stopping over development and the over population of Jersey. SNAFU!!
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Is it as good as the White Album?
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Of course Jersey would have got the all clear. As a person who works in the finance industry I am fully aware that we are far more regulated than the UK and are transparent in the business we conduct. Maybe this will now put an end to protesters who don’t understand how the finance industry works, after all if it collapsed/ended in Jersey people would be in a far worse position than they are now.
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A sad day for all the doom mongers that frequent this site !
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Yes it is a sad day as an end has been put to degradation of our beautiful island. It may encourage the states to build the waterfront finance centre and to increase the population even further in turn further feeding the problems which climate change will cause where by every little bit of land will be needed for food.
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Majeeka
That is such a wild and flailing statement in your second sentence. Which bits of the UK financial services sector would you say we are “better regulated” than the UK in?
So much of the improvement in our regulatory system and anti money laundering rules has come about following pressure from the likes of the UK and OECD.
Still I appreciate that a lot of inaccurate accusations have been chucked our Finance Industry’s way recently.
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Enjoy it whilst it lasts.
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Good news, we can continue to house the low-footprint industry that brings us so much revenue. Finance is far better than the tourism we used to have to rely on, we all used to winge about the ‘grockles’ and the ‘horror cars’.
I bet Adrian is disappointed!
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The tax evasion days may be over but the tax avoidance industry will run for a little longer.
I imagine there will still be plenty of “essential employment” available in the legal loopholes for companies industry.
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Phew! Well, that’s a relief!
Our bankers,hedge fund managers, trust managers, securities analysts – and all the other euphemistic smoke-screens put up by the industry- can all get back to the ethics-free zone that is finance.
The injustice, poverty and misery which is directly caused by world finance will be conveniently ignored as we revel in business as usual.
Of course, now we can build our much needed Esplanade Quarter and celebrate this wonderful game of money which brings so much to so few.
No, hockeye,(No.4) we’re not doom mongers. We’re just looking for a more just world.
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So Jersey is on a list of “Jurisdictions that have substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard” mainly because of recent agreements with the UK and Europe.
But what does that mean for the finance industry? Can Jersey finance prosper now that these concessions have been made? What is the benefit to basing a hedge fund or PE fund out of Jersey as opposed to the US or UK?
The economist recently published an article asking the same question.
“Jersey and Guernsey, two islands less than 100 miles from Britain, owe 50% and 40% respectively of their income to financial services. How much of that would survive if those businesses were forced to be totally transparent is open to question.”
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It’s Iconic
While I agree about the States now forging on with the so called “needless” finance centre.
This complete b’ll’ks about finance bringing injustice, poverty and misery is totally wrong. Do you really think that if finance and commerce was removed the world would suddenly become a more just place, Get real !!
Where is finance responsible for the poverty and misery in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Somalia and many other sub Sahara countries that could be mentioned ?
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Unfortunately many people over here seem to think its ok to work in a busness that makes a few rich at others expense, is morally and ethically bankrupt but it has a low carbon footprint,does pay their high wages to have a good life and is legal. Slavery was legal in the 18th century I suppose they would have been investing in the ships taking the Africans to the Americas as it was legal wasn’t it? Loop holes are there to be exploited aren’t they?
I bet the business people then were peddling the same sort of excuses. Unfortunately nothing changes. Most will supress morals and ethics if you wave a big enough wad under their snouts. No wonder the planet is in a mess. Maybe when people die due to wars, food shortages and other natural disasters they might wish they had been a bit more concerned about others instead of themselves all the time. Greed is fine if you don’t care about the planet and anything else but yourself. However long term there are consequences which will affect all. The greedy won’t be immune from natural disasters or plagues, or anything else caused by over exploitation of the environment or other people.
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And the butthurt socialists, instead of congratulating the Jersey authorities for creating a cooperative and well-regulated tax centre for entrepreneurs getting away from Terry Taxman and his constant cheques for Chavs, continue their childing wailing and bawwing. Appears that their desire to see us, and the West as a whole, crushed have been stopped – temporarily, of course.
“We’re just looking for a more just world.”
Happy looking.
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John the Second
well to give you a quick example of how we helped prop up odious regimes how about apartheid South Africa. I worked for a firm over here that was happy to help white South Africans get their money out and around exchange controls and emboargoesat that time. You could argue that by helping those people hedge their bets, whilst enjoying the benefits of something not far from slave labour, then they would be less likely to agitate for change.
File on 4, Radio 4′s investigative programme ran a story about how Jsy structures helped a commodity exporter furthercut its tax bills in a relatively benign African country even though the govt their had granted the co a low concessionary tax deal. The country hadn’t put in place the necessary legisltion to stop transfer pricing abuses. Lost tax revenue that would hopefully have gone to those beneficial areas for a developing country I guess.
A lot of tax avoidance is pretty unpleasant in the economic effects it can produce. Fortunately we’ve developed a pretty amoral outlook so we dont have problems sleeping at night.
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Unfortunately give most enough money and they will turn a blind eye to almost anything in today’s world. Anyone who can’t see the effects of tax avoidance on those in poorer parts of the world are either ignorant or don’t give a damn, as far as I am concerned.
Even in Jersey we have a two tier tax regime where the wealthiest get a better deal than the rest, so much for democracy and everyone mucking in together.
Nevermind we now have GST to plug the short fall caused by big business and the rich. We can always raise this to 17.5%, like it soon will be again in the UK. I am sure the supporters of the rich won’t mind paying more. Whether those at the bottom of the pile will manage appears to be neither here nor there.
What is Jersey now classified as? Are countries on this white list now called white tax havens because they are transparent to the big boys or what?
Slave labour is an interesting issue Yosser. Not that many in the west appear bothered by others working in appalling conditions, in third world countries, for pennies a day, making western capitalist goods to sell at inflated prices to those with money to waste in the west. Mind you its good for land fill isn’t it?
No wonder the over priced coal mines in the UK shut down in the 1980′s when you could buy cheaper coal in from Columbia mined by 14 year old kids with no proper health and safety protection. The joys of free markets and getting cheaper goods.Those running businesses love cheap labour, it maximises their profits.
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Pity that John the second doesn’t seem to have heard about Barclays bankrolling Zimbabwe and many, many other examples of how so-called trade agreements, commodity prices etc have devastating consequences on the poor.
Where are all the billions funneled out of Nigeria by their corrupt leaders, for example?
There is a long and extremely well documented history of the complicity of banking, finance, big business and corrupt government in the creation of the truly desperate state of the vast majority of the world’s population.
You get real John, do some reading and find out what’s behind the flashy face of finance.
oh and Hmm, I’ll keep on looking, you just go ahead and buy that Porsche.
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The analogy made between slavery and finance in post 13 is ridiculous in the extreme. It’s no wonder most people just skip past this gentlemans comments, on an almost daily basis he waffles on about us all being on a fast track to eternal demnation just because we’re not farmers anymore and don’t live off the land. Sour grapes anyone?
The finance industry is the best thing that ever happened to Jersey in my humble opinion, it brings wealth into our island and provides jobs for every half-decent person. The problem is that the powers-that-be have chosen to sqaunder an awful lot of this money – but don’t blame the industry for this, blame the politicians. They would have done the same even if we were still all country bumpkins.
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As Gordon Gekko once said….. greed is good… and we are expert at being greedy people, I owe my granite farmhouse and swimming pool to Jersey I must still worship at the altar of finance to pay my mortgage. I’m also fairly lucky as I have a few unqualified units where I can charge a premium rate… it’s such a rat race. All my children go to private school and I must make sure my wife can have lunch at de Gruchys, I’m so relieved we are on the white list.
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John the Second
I see it differently to most. The finance industry revolves around economic growth and greed. This cannot be sustained for many more years. In the opinion of many scientists Economic growth is destroying the world. Did you watch Al Gore’s film “an inconvenient truth” last night?. Well is clearly points out the damage growth is doing. The growth must stop for us to even begin to have a hope of fighting climate change. Just yesterday a huge break up of ice occurred in Antarctica which will probably soon lead to an ice shelf falling in the sea and rising the sea level by a few millimetres.
Its time people started looking at the bigger picture and accepted Economic growth must stop. People who care about there children should accept this and those about to have children should think about whether they want there children to live in the world of 2100.
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Tobias you have you own views on things and I find it commendable that you can carry on regardless of what is going on world wide. However others have seen the writing on the wall so to speak.
The finance industry in Jersey is the best thing for those working in it as it pays them more than they could elsewise ever hope to get, in the real world, for the qualifications they have. It is also the best things for migrants from the UK who probably would be on the dole, or whatever it is called now in the UK, if they hadn’t come to Jersey for a much better life style.
Can anyone who puts monetary value for themselves ahead of others’ suffering and damage to the environment be classified as anything but selfish?
Service to self and a lack of understanding of how things are affecting others on this planet, is the direct cause of all of our problems. This is why things continue to get worse, and will deterioate further until the majority realise things have to change for the better. If this means tax havens go then this is what must happen regardless of what the few, in real terms, working in them feel. Shouldn’t the needs of the most outway the needs of the few in any decent society?
Tobias is correct in the government wastes far to much money. However they also fail the majority when they fail to plan for the future properly, have a level playing field for residents as regards income tax, control prices of goods and travel, fail to take big business and the rich to task when needs must.
Annie even when Antartic isn’t covered in ice many people won’t worry about it. Only when their houses are underwater might they give it a second thought. Until then it is head in the sand and carry on as if there is no tomorrow. Stupid does as stupid is. Unfortunately there is no telling some people and they will only learn the hard way, when it is too late.
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I’m a St Helier dweller, successful fella, but I’ve
thought to myself oops I’ve got a lot of money butI’m caught in a rat race terminally. I’m a professional cynic but my heart’s not in it and
I’m paying the price of living life at the limit
Caught up in this G20 anxiety it preys on me a bit, and I’m getting thin. Laterly I’m watching afternoon repeats of bergerac and the food I eats is in the country, I take all manner of pills and I pile up analyst bills in the country. Jersey is like an animal farm with lot’s of rural charm in the country
I’ve got morning glory, but my greedy finance life’s a different story, everything is going jackanory, but i’m touch with my own mortality, I’m reading balzac, knocking back prozac listening to the States arguing
It’s a helping hand that makes you feel wonderfully bland.
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How do you figure finance damages the environment?
The production of computers and usage of electricity to run the server farms does of course do some. However, you would prefer us to rely on farming / tourism, like in the bad old days? Think of all those tourists driving round in their hire cars polluting the atmosphere, plus the aeroplace fuel to get here and back. I’d say that’s considerably worse.
As for agriculture, the greedy farmers just love to pour chemicals galore over the fields to ensure a bumper harvest. So much so that the water becomes dangerously high in nitrates, front page headline a few years back, “Don’t drink the water”
I fail to see why you consider that finance is the root of all evil.
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Adrian – i generally agree with your views and do also with regard to no one caring until the problem is actually on their front door. It looks like water will be on many Jersey front door steps within this century. The ice that broke up today was actually almost all on water so will have little effect but if all the ice on Greenland for instance melted then sea level rise would be in the region of 7 metres, Bye Bye St Helier. But who cares? The States certainly don’t except the odd few, e.g Senator Syvret and Deputy Wimberley.
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Annie – the Jersey Financial sector will not end the world and nor will the tiny amount of greenhouse gas we puff out each day. It is you and me and the whole human race and our inability to control our rapidly increasing population that is systematically destroying the Earths ability to regulate the ecosystem.
Unfortunately whilst we are all embarked on our politically correct and self righteous “global warming” crusade the world governments are able to avoid dealing with these very difficult issues. Open your eyes and see the results of over population, the deforestation, rape of our oceans and the systematic destruction of all other species.
Carbon tax? Our Government put GST at only 3% on domestic fuel and just look at the public outrage. Even the deputy of St Mary is voted against it.
What the financial services sector will do it provide the resources we need to meet the challenges of the next decade.
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It seems to me that people have select memories, so its not okay to have a regulated finance industry but it is ok to put foreign workers in poor living conditions to sow the fields etc, or am I to believe that the above people (who believe we shouldn’t support the finance industry) don’t buy produce from fields worked in this manner! Do the same people only sell their houses (if they are lucky enough to own one) to local people for a local price, no its wrong but actually we all benefit from it being here! The rich may not pay 20 means 20, the finance industry may not be ethical in somepeoples minds but the reality is we all benefit from them.
Choosing not to would take a brave stand, choosing where you shop and what you buy, do the above only shop in local corner shops (what few we have left?) do they pay private health as the states health is no doubt aided by the many workers in the finance industry!!
I am not against anyone but you must see the bigger picture, unless your children want to grow up as farmers or manual workers (and there is nothing wrong with that) then we have to accept what we have, and what we have is a profitable regulated finance industry and as much as we may loathe it, we have it and we all benefit from it so no amount of moaning is going to change that.
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Great news.
The world needs the finance industry to progress,I am proud that Jersey is playing a major role in the industry. Without a finance industry who could build dams wind farms social housing, etc. Just about any large project needs money to complete before it starts paying its own way, without a finance industry (except maybe in a communist state where the workers are fed lies instead of wages) how would these projects get off the drawing board the let alone onto ground. The industrial revolution would have been dead on the starting blocks were it not for finance.
Just think all you luddites, were it not for the finance industry of the time, making progress its possible we would probably still have slavery.
I left St Helier boys school in 1965 even with all the certificates available to me the best job available was in the trades, the wages if you could call them wages were abysmal, much less relatively than minimal wages now.
Look at what finance now offers our school leavers, good well paid jobs, training par excellence where they can go anywhere in the world to practice their profession.
All industries have a down side, even charities may be accused of making it easier for governments not to look after the needy. My opinion is the world would be a dismal place were it not for a finance industry that makes all things possible.
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Now the small number of fools we have in government who attended and supported ATTAC only two weeks ago can now drift away with their tails between their legs.
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What ever justifications people try to put forward things will change at some stage as we are living in an unsustainable world, polluting, destroying and culling just about every species on the planet either for food or for the pet trade or for their environment or becasue they are classified as pests.
Capitalism oils the wheels of trade that causes deforestation, pollution of environments and the use of labour for one thing only personal gain at all costs. As far as I am concerned finance is a part of this capitalistic, greedy, consumer driven society. I would say carry on as you are if you want future generations to be living on the edge as all eco-systems fail around them.
PJG a bit of advice for you money is dependent on confidence, take confidence away and it is seen for what it is fool’s gold. This is why everything is on the brink now more people are seeing through the system.
If you think a job in finance is great thats your slant on things. Finance is breeding a generation of dumbed down people who sit in front of screens most of the day taping away on a key board or pushing pieces of paper around. How brain numbing can that be? They work up to 12 hours a day and are stressed out before they get out of bed. What a life. They look like zoombies and hardly can grunt a good morning on the way to work. You can keep it.
What an earth are these people going to be good for, if they have to do a real job, when finance goes? Can you see any of these suits getting their hands dirty with a labouring job? It wouldn’t look good if the neighbours saw them doing this sort of job would it? No good for the image I would say.
Anyone who voted for anyone in the CoM has condemned the majority to a harder life as far as I am concerned. So don’t moan when things get even worse.
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Adrian you obviously don’t know many people that work in finance. So accountants are dumb..? sorry but your assumptions are utter rubbish, and I for one am getting mighty tired of your daily essays on how finance is destroying the planet.
Finance work does not involve simply ‘looking at a screen’ – it certainly uses a hell of a lot more grey matter than landscape gardening. I bet us finance workers pay considerably more tax than gardeners too so if you follow your normal philosophy then you should actually be praising us rather than villifying.
I for one love working in a comfortable chair in an air-conditioned office for 7-hour days (not 12 as you suggest) and I’m now getting more than double the salary I received when I was working as a goldsmith. Can you think of anything more boring than making jewellery all day? At least now I get to use my brain.
So I think I’ll stick with my ‘planet-destroying’ (??!) job thanks and I would advise everyone else with decent intelligence to do the same. Viva finance!
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Tobias.
Capitalism = Consumerism = Unsustainability.
Finance oils the wheels of Capitalism.
(No mention of other negative issues with finance)
In case you don’t know air conditioning is bad for the planet and peoples’ health.
You must have a cushy number then nearly everyone I know gets in by 8am at the latest and are rarely out before 7pm.
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Adrian,
“Shouldn’t the needs of the most outway the needs of the few in any decent society?”
This is the absolute crux of why your opinions are utterly wrong. The answer to the above is no, no and no again.
What if fair in a society is equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. People should from that point on be able to succeed or fail according to their merits. We should of course ensure that the terminally bewildered are not left to starve, but we should not pay for Sky TV, ciggies and beer for the indolent.
Or if you prefer, as John Stuart Mill expressed it:
“There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence; and to find that limit, and maintain it against encroachment, is as indispensable to a good condition of human affairs as protection against political despotism.”
And it is for this reason that I compare your policies to Pol Pot: because in the end, you believe in the collective over the individual, and that always leads to tyranny.
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mad foetus.
Well said.
I wait with bated breath Adrians reply.
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mad foetus The “I” of the individual is bad as it leads down the road of corruption, and dictatorship. This is why the “I” is very bad.
You confuse this issue with right and left which are but arbitary labels for political view points. Pol Pot was an “I” as was Adolph Hitler etc. Right and left has nothing to do with this. It is the person themselves behind it. If they are an “I” then there are big problems. Big I’s tend to run most things meaning that we have become entrapped in this capitalistic, consumer driven greed society, interspersed with wars as these dictators of business and politics strive for control of everything and everyone else.
The collective is always better as you get balance and these selfish, selfserving individuals would be kept in check. Once one person is in charge you move down the dictatorial route. Self serving individuals will always do well in the capitalistic system as their moral and ethic base is either reduced or none existant meaning they don’t put ethics before business decisions. Thus lieing, cheating deceiving become the norm as this is the way to success. This is why capitalism is bad as it promotes the individual above everything else in the rush for profit.
This is why we are at the stage we are today and it will only get worse until people realise this.
I believe that we are all one anyway, so to stitch others up is to stitch up oneself. This is what karma is all about. You cannot be untrue to yourself, and therefore you suffer the consequences for your treatment of others. You advocate the “I” above the us to the detriment of your true self. I don’t expect you to understand or believe what I am saying but this is what I believe is the real truth on things.
“Others” can think they are separate and act as such but they are in reality only setting up karmic factors that will rebound on “themselves” at some stage in the future (or a future life).
Therefore by your incorrect belief in self, you are perpetuating the myth of self. You also advocating dictatorship as this is where service to self ends. With your belief of the “I” you have become a mirror of the self serving dictator.
You are of cause free to follow this capitalistic, consumer driven society of service to self but do remember it will end up in failure as it is based on a false premise of the “I” being different from the us.
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“The injustice, poverty and misery which is directly caused by world finance will be conveniently ignored as we revel in business as usual.”
Yes, those billion people that capitalism has lifted out of poverty in the last 20 years must be absolutely livid.
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It took you a long time to repeat yourself. I think the environment would beg to differ. Nevermind, you can say capitalism worked to an extent in the short term, shame it ruined the planet though long term. Maybe big business can come up with gizmos to try and clean up all the mess up caused by consumerism?
Enjoy it whilst it lasts the repercussions can be enjoyed at leisure. More and more people, with less and less available food due to a variety of man made problems, poisoned water supplies. I am sure these consumers will all be touted by the capitalists in their drive to sell till the last possible minute before everything collapses. What value money then? None I would say. People will then see the true worth of all this progress, no planet to live on. Then as you say everyone will be livid. It will however be a bit late in the day.
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