Senator Philip Ozouf: ‘Jersey has to prove it is well regulated’

JERSEY’S finance industry needs more money to defend its position as a well-regulated offshore jurisdiction, according to the Treasury Minister.

Senator Philip Ozouf says that maintaining Jersey’s clean international image is an ongoing and costly job.

In the week that Tony Blair’s former ‘spin doctor’, Alastair Campbell, told the JEP that he could ‘sense the defensiveness’ in Jersey, which he deemed unwarranted, Senator Ozouf has warned that the Island should not ‘let its guard down’ following recent IMF and OECD approval.

This is because the ‘microscope on offshore finance centres is not going to end,’ he said. And he has signalled that he might give promotional body Jersey Finance Ltd some of the Island’s fiscal stimulus funding in order to market Jersey internationally.

‘We have done well in our IMF review and in getting on the OECD “white list” but the microscope on offshore finance centres is not going to end,’ he said. ‘Jersey has a big challenge ahead and can’t let its guard down in explaining and defending its position and that comes at a cost.