IoD given update on new financial services strategy

Monday 29 October 2018

Dr Andy Sloan spoke at the most recent IoD breakfast briefing, with an update on the work towards a financial service strategy and a focus on green initiatives.

Repeating what he had said at the recent IoD dinner debate, Dr Sloan said he thinks of Guernsey as a "specialist global finance centre servicing sophisticated global clients" which has faced some challenges.

But he said the development of a long term financial strategy will help stop the island being known as a tax haven. He said it's "not merely a quick PR exercise and marketing of one new product – no matter how great that one product is.  

"It is about genuinely becoming a finance centre that cares and believes in green and sustainable finance."

Dr Sloan said the strategy will have three core elements: 

• aligning with and build on a global green taxonomy
• further development of our flexible and comprehensive product offer
• developing a programme of engagement to promote the offering and seek to develop partnership opportunities to exploit our leadership position in infrastructure services

His speech, which can be read in full here, also referred to the policy framework as a "coordinated approach to achieving a strategic common purpose of the development of Guernsey’s financial services sector to safeguard its long term future."

"It’s publication will be a positive statement of intent, defining clearly how we will seek to drive the development of our finance sector and help it evolve and meet the challenge of securing Guernsey’s economic future in a post 2020 world, setting out various market positions that we will seek to achieve and the principles that will guide our approach in doing so," he said.

Dr Sloan discussed the long term goals of the strategy which include: 

• Create a clear market position as specialist global finance and leading green and sustainable finance centre.  
• Align product development with developing patterns of global wealth creation with greater focus on servicing private capital and wealth.  
• Development of further ‘specialisms’ ie niche positions in higher value markets/products
• Renewed growth in fiduciary and fund sector revenues.
• Create a competitive jurisdictional AML regime fully exploiting potential of wide-spread adoption of technology.

He said that "every journey starts with a single step and to get us there we’ll need some more immediate/short term objectives. And looking forward, our four immediate short term, that is 12 months, objectives are by comparison much simpler but nevertheless still ambitious."

You can read Dr Sloan's speech to the IoD in full here.