Jersey Financial Services Commission: Fee Levying Powers and Removal of Unnecessary Licensing Provisions: Law drafting instructions

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A decision made 13 November 2015:

Ministerial decision reference MD-C-2015-0121
Decision summary title Law drafting instructions to make consistent the JFSC’s fee-levying powers and to remove certain unnecessary licensing provisions
Decision summary author	Director, Finance Industry Development, Financial Services Unit	Is the decision summary public or exempt?		Public
Report title Law drafting instructions
Report author or name of person giving report	Director, Finance Industry Development, Financial Services Unit	Is the report public or exempt?		Public
Decision and reason for the decision The Assistant Chief Minister acting under delegated powers from the Chief Minister approved the commencement of law drafting as set out in the law drafting instructions. The legislative amendments requested serve two purposes. Firstly, to make the JFSC’s fee-levying provisions consistent and, secondly, to remove certain unnecessary administrative provisions relating to the renewal of regulatory licences. Making the JFSC’s fee-levying provisions consistent The JFSC has been granted the statutory power under Article 15 of the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998 (and under provisions in each of the regulatory laws that the JFSC administers) to require regulated businesses to pay fees. Following a review of the existing statutory provisions, the need for a number of amendments have been identified to make the fee-levying provisions consistent across the regulatory laws and ensure that each regulatory law (where it does not do so already) gives the JFSC the flexibility to: charge periodic fees (such as an annual licence fee); and charge discrete fees (i.e. requiring the payment of a fee for the JFSC’s carrying out of a specific requested activity). The law drafting instructions relate to changes to the enabling powers only. Before the JFSC could set any new or revised fees under the proposed amended provisions it would need to follow the prescribed consultation process set out in the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998. That law also provides for an arbitration mechanism (involving a panel of Jurats) should the JFSC be unable to reach agreement on the proposed fees with a body that is representative of those who would be required to pay them. Removing unnecessary administrative provisions Under all of the regulatory laws that the JFSC administers, except the Banking Business and Insurance Business laws, once a business has been granted a licence it remains valid until such time as it is revoked by the JFSC. However, under the Banking Law, every registration (licence) expires on 31st January of each year. This means that every bank has to have its registration renewed annually. This results in unnecessary administrative work for both the JFSC and banks. A similar situation exists under the Insurance Business Law. These licence renewal provisions are unnecessary and are to be removed.
Resource implications There are no resource implications for the States of Jersey.
Action required The Director, Finance Industry Development, Financial Services Unit to request the Law Draftsman to draft changes as set out in the law drafting instructions to be submitted by the JFSC to the Law Draftsman.
Signature			Position Senator P F C Ozouf Assistant Chief Minister

Date signed			Effective date of the decision