GUERNSEY’S finance sector has reacted with delight to news that the terms, ‘offshore’ and ‘onshore’, are to be dropped by the International Monetary Fund.
Guernsey Financial Services Commission director-general Peter Neville (pictured) said it was about time the IMF acknowledged it was wrong to distinguish between jurisdictions in such a way.
‘What matters is whether a jurisdiction meets the international standards, which we do. A series of very thorough independent assessments has confirmed this. The bodies which set global standards for financial supervisors to follow, such as the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering, do not distinguish between offshore and onshore finance centres.’
Mr Neville said removal of the ‘offshore’ stigma represented the culmination of years of work arguing with Guernsey’s detractors at international groups such as the IMF, which assesses compliance by jurisdictions with international standards, and the Financial Stability Forum.’
He was in Brussels yesterday talking about getting access to European markets for Guernsey firms and said the IMF’s announcement was hugely positive.
‘The IMF’s announcement is also very timely because, as stated by the chief minister, it endorses one of the key points of the Guernsey submission to the UK Treasury Select Committee inquiry into offshore and onshore finance centres.
‘As far as the commission is concerned, we look forward to January’s IMF visit. At least we can now be confident that we are going to be expected to meet the same standards as everyone else.
‘However, we must remember that some countries will maintain the distinction between onshore and offshore centres and we must continue our efforts to seek to ensure that the distinction dies away completely.’
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