Regulatory problems rarely arrive as a single event. They start with a question from a supervisor, a themed examination, an issue somebody has escalated internally, or a complaint from a client. What happens in the first few weeks usually determines how the next two years go.
We advise regulated businesses and the individuals who run them. That includes trust company businesses, fund and investment businesses, and the directors, compliance officers and key person holders who carry personal responsibility when something goes wrong.
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Where We Help
Supervision, Examinations and Enquiries
Most engagement with the Jersey Financial Services Commission is supervisory rather than enforcement, and that is an opportunity to close a matter down before it becomes anything else.
We can help you establish what is being asked and why, prepare an accurate and complete response, and manage the process so that a supervisory question does not become an enforcement referral through poor handling.
Enforcement and Regulatory Investigations
Once a matter has been referred to enforcement the position changes. The business and the individuals within it may have divergent interests, and it is far better to identify that early than at the point a public statement is being drafted.
We can advise on the scope of an investigation, on what material properly falls within it, on the conduct of interviews, and on representations before any finding is made. Where a sanction is proposed, we can advise on whether it should be accepted or challenged.
Individual Exposure
Action against a business and action against a named individual are different problems, and the second is usually the more serious for the person concerned. A public statement naming a compliance officer or a director follows them for the rest of their career.
We act for individuals in their own right, including where the business has its own advisers and the individual’s interests are not the same as the company’s.
Codes of Practice and Governance
A great many regulatory findings turn on whether a business did in practice what its own procedures said it would do. That gap is where the difficulty usually lies.
We can review governance, escalation and record-keeping arrangements against the Codes of Practice, looking at what would happen if those arrangements were tested rather than at whether another manual is needed.
How We Work
We are a litigation practice, and that shapes the advice. We look at a regulatory problem the way it would look if it were contested: what is documented, what is merely asserted, and what would actually be established on the evidence.
That perspective is useful long before anything becomes contentious. It tends to produce shorter and more accurate responses to regulators, and it identifies at the outset which points are worth taking and which are not.
We operate completely free of institutional conflicts of interest. We hold no standing retainers with the major trust companies, banks or public authorities, so we are able to act against them, and to act for individuals whose interests diverge from their employer’s.
Speak to a Senior Jersey Advocate
Or Call Us: +44 (0)1534 620500
Frequently Asked Questions
The JFSC has asked us for information. Do we need a lawyer?
Not always, and we will tell you if you do not. Many supervisory requests are routine and are best answered promptly and in full.
Advice is worth taking where the request touches on a problem you already know about, where it appears to concern a specific client or transaction rather than your systems generally, or where the answer might expose an individual personally. In those situations, what you say first is difficult to unsay later.
The business has its own lawyers. Can you act for me personally?
Yes, and there are circumstances in which you should have your own adviser. A firm instructed by the business acts for the business. Where the likely explanation for a problem is that an individual did or did not do something, those interests separate.
Can a regulatory finding be challenged?
Yes. There are avenues to make representations before a decision is taken and to challenge decisions once made. Whether a challenge is the right course depends on the finding, the evidence, and what the realistic alternative outcome looks like.
We will give you a straight view on that, including when accepting a proposed outcome is the better commercial decision.
