‘Review has no point’
Monday 5th January 2009, 2:30PM GMT.
A UK Government review of financial operations in offshore territories and Crown Dependencies will achieve little, according to a leading Channel Islands lawyer.
Stephen Platt, BakerPlatt Group chairman in Jersey, said the review announced by Chancellor Alastair Darling in the pre-Budget report last year, would only be going over old ground as it would not be considering the constitutional relationship between Great Britain, the Crown Dependencies and offshore territories.
‘The IMF has only recently left Jersey, where it was carrying out its own review,’ said Mr Platt.
‘All of the Crown Dependencies and offshore territories are subject to regular assessments of their compliance with international norms of financial compliance.
‘The review announced in the pre-Budget report does not have within its ambit the consideration of the sufficiency of those norms. It can only re-examine compliance in light of them.
‘It is difficult, therefore, to see what will be achieved by another review.’
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full, click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
But can the Channel Islands take advantage of the review (when it happens) to expose recent failings in respect of devastated depositors in Landsbanki Guernsey. For example, we believe the UK Government has not represented the States of Guernsey adequately in its negotiations with the Icelandic Government. Also, by “saving” depositors in the Heritable(UK) which held about £35m of Landsbanki Guernsey funds we believe it could have significantly disadvantaged depositors in Landsbanki Guernsey. I feel sure that the “saving” decision was taken without any thought for the consequences for depositors and citizens in the Channel Islands!!
Report abuse