SO all’s well with the world. I woke this morning to a radio news bulletin which told me with great solemnity that many more cockles than usual were dying in Jersey this year. And that was the lead story.

Now I’ve got nothing against cockles. Some of my best friends spend a lot of their time submerged on the seashore. But I was a little surprised that there was nothing of greater significance to report in the morning news bulletins.

The States had spent all the previous day discussing the Business Plan which is designed to shape the future of Jersey. The EU Code of Conduct group also held a meeting to discuss our crucial zero-ten tax régime. But apparently none of this was worth following up by the news-hounds. So we had cockles instead.

Now some people might think that was preferable to listening to a bunch of politicians, but we’re not talking about entertainment here; we’re talking about news, and unfortunately news is a serious business. I have always thought so, even before I became an old fogey.

Unfortunately, trivia also has a habit of getting in the way of much weightier matters, which brings me neatly to the future of Jersey’s finance industry.

We are currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Island’s modern finance industry. Jersey Finance has had its big party at the Hotel de France which attracted the usual suspects, and those involved in celebrating this momentous event have been busy patting each other on the back. So what’s wrong with that?
Nothing, really. I’m happy to accept any excuse for a party, but there is just a smidgeon of danger in overdoing it.

Unfortunately, I think this celebration was all a bit too contrived. It was designed either to divert attention away from the problems currently facing financial services (which I think is unlikely), or as an excuse to extol the virtues of the finance industry (possibly), or as an excuse to raise the profile of the finance industry so that everyone in the Island appreciates how important it is (very likely).

Whatever the reason, it was a marketing exercise as opposed to a genuine anniversary.

Some might think it worthwhile celebrating the arrival of the first merchant bank in the Island, and many might say that this was the beginning of the modern finance industry. Nice story, but the finance industry pre-dated that, and there are plenty of other notable events to celebrate.

The UK clearing banks were already in the Island in 1961 doing a lot of business, and not just with Island residents. Some of those residents had been attracted to live in the Island because of the 20% tax rate, introduced in 1940. So perhaps 1940 was the beginning of Jersey’s modern finance industry.

Or what about 1927 and the Inland Revenue memorandum pointing out ‘the considerable numbers of private investment companies registered in Jersey and Guernsey’? This appeared to be ‘purely a tax-dodging exercise’ and should be stopped, the revenue said.

A much more likely event to celebrate as the beginning of the finance sector might even be 1928, when income tax was first introduced. That would certainly help to distinguish us from Guernsey, which had to bring in income tax in 1919, and the Isle of Man, in 1918.

However, we could actually go back much, much further to find the roots of the finance industry. The islands have much-prized centuries-old charters which exempted them from taxes and various duties because of their loyalty to successive monarchs. I often say to people who call the Channel Islands tax havens that if they are tax havens, they are at least 800-year-old tax havens. Now that’s something worth celebrating.

However, the organisers of the recent celebrations have been careful to emphasise that they are marking the beginnings of the ‘modern’ finance industry, so that ignores anything that happened before 1961, when Hill Samuel opened its doors.
The trouble with this approach is that if it’s trying to show how long Jersey has been in this particular business, then it rather backfires. It could make us appear relative newcomers.

Take the Isle of Man, for example. I have mentioned in this column before that I have a book on my bookshelf entitled ‘No man is an Island – 50 years of
finance in the Isle of Man’. This was published in 2009 and dates the beginning of the far less successful Manx finance industry to the abolition of surtax.

You might say that this was nowhere near as significant an event as the arrival of the first merchant bank in Jersey. However it provided them with an opportunity to boast about the longevity of their finance sector, had they wished to do so.
Even Bermuda and some of the Caribbean islands have a finance industry with roots that are almost as long as Jersey’s merchant banking industry.

So perhaps the Island is celebrating something that is not such a big deal – certainly not big enough to warrant a stamp being issued, although stamps include anything these days, and no doubt Jersey’s cockles will feature soon, if they survive.

Of course it doesn’t matter too much if we’re celebrating an event that may not be quite as significant as some people claim – except if it acts as a diversion from the important business. Also, the effectiveness of future messages coming from Jersey Finance and about the finance sector will be judged by what has gone before. If that is found to be less than well thought out and accurate, then it might be a problem also.

However, having established a reputation as a pedantic killjoy, I must repeat that I am still a strong supporter of the finance industry.

Although I won’t be hanging out the bunting for the half-century, I will toast the continuing good health of this vital industry.
Peter Body is editor of Business Brief magazine