William Mason, the long-serving director-general of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, set out a new, pragmatic regulatory agenda, putting economic prosperity and long-term financial stability ahead of precaution, or what he called \u2018the stability of the graveyard\u2019. <\/p>\n
He said regulators who sought to eliminate all risk ultimately made jurisdictions poorer and less resilient.<\/p>\n
\u2018I have been concerned at the impact which over-regulation can have on productivity, growth and the general wellbeing of the population,\u2019 Mr Mason said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Bailiwick should be guided by common sense and a high regard for individual freedom, rather than the precautionary principle.<\/p>\n
\u2018We want to be the regulator of the alive, the innovating, the growing and the prospering. <\/p>\n
\u2018Risks don\u2019t always work out, of course. Hopefully with sensible governance at entities taking risks \u2013 risks taken will work out more often than not, making the jurisdiction and its people better off.\u2019 <\/p>\n
In the speech to a conference organised by Step, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, Mr Mason also reinforced the island\u2019s consistent positioning on sustainable finance, and the commission\u2019s relatively recent embracing of digital finance business. <\/p>\n
\u2018The commission is suggesting that large parts of the financial services sector cannot afford not to adapt themselves to cope with the new technologies if they are to continue to be commercially competitive,\u2019 he said. <\/p>\n
\u2018The Bailiwick laws need to support rather than hinder them in this endeavour.\u2019<\/p>\n
The approach has been welcomed by the lead industry group and the politician responsible for the finance industry. <\/p>\n
Deputy Hayley Camp said Economic Development Committee was pleased to see that the GFSC\u2019s plans align with its vision and looked forward to working closely with the regulator to achieve it. <\/p>\n
\u2018We are determined to ensure that finance remains a sector where there is room for economic growth and innovation,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018To achieve this we must ensure we think carefully about the island\u2019s approach and tolerance to risk, and ensure that we do not regulate the sector into obscurity. New developments in finance such as digital assets are areas of opportunity, but equally, the more traditional financial services will always have an important role to play in our island\u2019s economy. Guernsey has always innovated at the cutting edge of financial services and we want to see that continue so the industry can prosper into the future.\u2019 <\/p>\n
Jo Peacegood, chairwoman of the Guernsey International Business Association, called the speech \u2018encouraging\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u2018Alongside the Oliver Wyman review [commissioned by Economic Development and part-funded by industry], these initiatives will help identify opportunities to diversify the sector, strengthen Guernsey\u2019s competitiveness and attract new markets.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Mason, the long-serving director-general of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, set out a new, pragmatic regulatory agenda,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-298975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}