Anti-money laundering assessors visit Jersey

Jersey’s International Finance Centre will be at the centre of the assessments

International assessors have started a two-week review in Jersey of measures taken to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

A team from European monitoring body Moneyval will judge laws, regulatory and enforcement processes against international standards on tackling financial crime.

The island’s institutions are hoping to avoid being placed on a "grey list" of jurisdictions subject to increased monitoring.

The outcome of the assessment will not be made public until May 2024.

Ahead of its visit, the Moneyval team has been sent thousands of pages of documents to consider, including details of the island’s laws and finance sector processes.

Inspectors will be privately interviewing people including civil servants, finance sector staff, regulators, police officers and charity bosses until 11 October.

They will assess whether laws and processes aimed at stopping money being laundered or used to fund terrorism, human trafficking, drug trafficking or arms dealing are technically compliant with international standards.

They will also look at how those measures are applied.

In preparation for assessment, representatives from the government and finance industry have been working closely together for around three years, establishing new structures and lines of communication.

A number of Jersey’s laws related to fighting financial crime have also been updated and changed.

Documents known as "national risk assessments", including analyses of the threats facing the island’s financial services sector, have also been published.

Based upon its last inspection in 2015, Jersey is currently on a "white list".

Officials say joining Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and around 24 other places on the "grey list" could damage Jersey’s international reputation, affect its credit rating and make it more difficult and costly for local institutions to do business.

North Korea, Iran and Myanmar are the only countries on the "black list".

Guernsey is expecting its own Moneyval assessment next year.