A solution that allows finance firms in Jersey to automatically transfer over 300,000 Beneficial Ownership records at a time, directly into the regulators’ system, is a significant development in the growing world of regulatory technology, or ‘RegTech’.
This new tool is designed to improve the speed and quality of data being provided to the regulator, assisting in the fight against money laundering and global tax evasion.
Digital Jersey, (the body responsible for developing & promoting Jersey as a digital jurisdiction), and the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC), (responsible for the regulation, supervision and development of the Island’s financial services industry), worked collaboratively to bring together Jersey’s digital and finance communities in order to deliver this innovative project. The solution will help financial services businesses to comply with new requirements under the Jersey Government’s new Beneficial Ownership policy, reducing the time and costs associated with submitting Beneficial Ownership information manually.
The Beneficial Ownership policy improves transparency by requiring financial services companies to submit to the regulator accurate and up to date information on individuals that own more than 25% of a company, the ‘Beneficial Owners.’ The information is then validated by regulated professionals before it is sent on to law enforcement and tax authorities, creating an extra layer of protection that ensures corporate vehicles are not used for illicit purposes. Jersey is one of just a few jurisdictions with a central registry for Beneficial Ownership information, building on the Island’s reputation as a world leader in the global fight against tax evasion, money laundering and terrorist financing.
The JFSC created an Application Programming Interface (API), allowing digital solutions to integrate with the JFSC’s system. This provides a gateway for technology businesses to create RegTech solutions that allows finance firms to automatically transfer up to date Beneficial Ownership information. Meanwhile, representatives of Jersey’s digital sector including C5 Alliance, Microgen, InfrasoftTech, XRM Architects, Fusion Systems, ViewPoint Software for Business, and Phoenix worked alongside local finance firms to enable them to use the new API.
So far over 100 businesses opted to connect through the portal, which provides them with the tools to automatically transfer over 300,000 Beneficial Ownership records at a time.
Tony Moretta, CEO of Digital Jersey, commented:
“I’d like to congratulate everyone involved in Jersey’s finance and digital businesses, who have been extremely proactive, rapidly creating innovative RegTech tools that answer local firm’s needs under the new policy. Our Island’s size is a big advantage when it comes to quickly and efficiently creating technology solutions to answer our ever-evolving regulatory environment.”
Denis Philippe, Head of ICT at the JFSC, commented:
“As part of the Islands’ commitment to transparency, the JFSC have delivered the new Beneficial Ownership systems. We have worked with Digital Jersey to promote this FinTech and RegTech project. Through our partnership, we have been able to support a number of local technology providers and regulated entities with the creation of integration and middleware systems. Essentially, allowing company systems to submit data directly into the JFSC Registry processing systems. This is the future direction of the Registry and it is already proving to be a great success.”
Julian Lamb, Director Registry at the JFSC, added:
“As registries globally grapple with developing requirements of the evolving digital world, Jersey’s Registry has been able to demonstrate a delivered digital application of new technologies and work practice. More importantly, we have been able to articulate complex AML/CFT business user requirements to the digital firms who have then been able to provide working solutions to the finance industry. This is now a proved model which we will continue to exploit going forward.”
