Jersey Finance chief executive Geoff Cook

JERSEY’S finance leaders have welcomed a major report which placed the Island at the top of an international banking regulation league table.

Earlier this week, it was announced that the Island had passed with flying colours the long-awaited International Monetary Fund inspection of its financial sector.

The report found that regulation and supervision in Jersey’s finance centre was of a ‘high standard’ and ‘comply well’ with international benchmarks. Specifically, it passed 44 of the Financial Action Task Force’s 49 recommendations aimed at countering money laundering and the funding of terrorism.

Geoff Cook, chief executive of Jersey Finance, said that the IMF endorsement should silence critics of the Island’s finance centre.

He said: ‘The IMF has given Jersey’s finance industry a ringing endorsement for the quality of its regulation and legislation, the transparency of its regulatory processes and the robustness and resilience of its banking system. The facts, independently endorsed by the IMF, speak for themselves.