Special Report on Jersey

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What Can Jersey Offer Expats?

ExpatMoneyChannel’s Hannah Beecham travelled to Jersey to assess how serious the centre is about offering financial services to British expats. In this special report she discovers that, despite the global economic downturn, Jersey remains very proactive in growing and increasing the level of quality of services it offers. Combine that with the fact that it's an extremely beautiful island to visit, and you have an intoxicating proposal.

A key offering for expats looking to use Jersey is the range of banking services on offer, underpinned by the fact that many of the major banks use Jersey as the headquarters for their expat banking activities. Indeed, it has been a policy of Jersey for many years to stick with the bigger banks, thereby minimising potential problems currently facing this sector. And while Jersey has now introduced a depositors compensation scheme covering the first £50,000 of deposits in a Jersey-based bank, it takes the view that only the biggest banks have the solidity to provide the safety and assurance that expats are looking for.

The centre also takes a strong supervisory lead in ensuring that it knows not only what is happening to a bank locally, but also outside its own jurisdiction by keeping in close contact with fellow supervisors worldwide. Expats will also be helped by new regulatory requirements issued by Jersey’s Financial Services Commission which will require banks to increase the availability of public financial information as well as ensuring that disclosures regarding relevant depositor compensation schemes are made in advertisements as from 2011.

Banking aside, Jersey has many other financial services on offer including offshore funds and setting up a trust. More recently Jersey Finance has been looking into the possibility of making changes to its pension regime to enable it to offer transferable international pensions, including UK Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS).

Also in our Special Report on Jersey -