Jersey Financial Services Commission: Appointment of Commissioner

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A decision made on 5 December 2014:

Decision Reference: MD-C-2014-0191
Decision Summary Title :	Appointment of Commissioner of the Jersey Financial Services Commission	Date of Decision Summary:	5 December 2014
Decision Summary Author:	Director of Financial Services	Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written	Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	Appointment of Commissioner of the Jersey Financial Services Commission	Date of Written Report:	5 December 2014
Written Report Author:	Director of Financial Services	Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Appointment of Mr Simon Morris as a Commissioner of the Jersey Financial Services Commission (the “Commission”).
Decision(s): The Chief Minister approved the nomination of Mr Simon Morris for appointment as a Commissioner of the Commission and directed that the Proposition to do so be lodged au Greffe for debate by the States at the earliest opportunity.
Reason(s) for Decision: The Chairman of the Commission, Lord Eatwell, has written to the Chief Minister on behalf of the Board of the Commission recommending the nomination of Mr Simon Morris for appointment by the States a Commissioner of the Commission. Under Article 3(2)(a) of the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998, Commissioners are to be appointed by the States on the nomination of the Chief Minister. Having considered the process adopted by the Commission leading up to the recommendation of Mr Morris to be nominated as a Commissioner and Mr Morris’ previous experience, it is recommended that the Chief Minister support Mr Morris’ nomination.
Resource Implications: There are no resource or manpower implications for the States.

Action required:

The Greffier of the States to be requested to arrange for the report and proposition to be lodged ‘au Greffe’ for consideration by the States Assembly at the earliest opportunity.

Signature:

Position:

Chief Minister

Date Signed:

Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Jersey Financial Services Commission: Appointment of Commissioner

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Chief Minister’s Department

5TH Floor, Cyril Le Marquand House, The Parade

St Helier, Jersey, JE4 8UL

Tel: +44 (0)1534 440449

WRITTEN REPORT

Appointment of Mr Simon Morris as a Commissioner of the Jersey Financial Services Commission (“JFSC”)

Background

The appointment of Commissioners to the Jersey Financial Services Commission (the “Commission”) is dealt with in Articles 3 and 4 of the Financial Services Commission (Jersey) Law 1998 (the “Commission Law”).

Paragraph (1) of Article 3 reads as follows -

“(1) The Commission shall consist of -

(a) a Chairman; and

(b) not less than six other Commissioners.”

Paragraph (2) reads as follows -

“(2) The States shall appoint -

(a) the Commissioners from persons nominated by the Minister; and

(b) a Commissioner nominated by the Minister to be Chairman of the Commission,

and the appointments shall be debated in camera.”

Paragraph (3) states -

“(3) The Commissioners shall include –

(a) persons with experience of the type of financial services supervised by the Commission;

(b) regular users on their own account or on behalf of others, or representatives of those users, of financial services of any kind supervised by the Commission; and

and the composition of the Commission shall be such as to secure a proper balance between the interests of persons carrying on the business of financial services, the users of such services and the interests of the public at large.”

Pursuant to paragraph (2) of Article 4, the term of appointment of a Commissioner is prescribed by Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Commission Law, paragraph 1(2) of which reads as follows –

“(2) A Commissioner shall be appointed by instrument in writing for a period not exceeding five [1] years and upon expiry of such period shall be eligible for reappointment.”

By virtue of Article 4(1) all Commissioners are required to take oath before the Royal Court in the form set out in Part I of Schedule 1 to the Law before they begin to act in execution of the Commission Law.

Nomination

The Chairman of the Commission, Lord Eatwell, has written to the Chief Minister on behalf of the Board of the Commission recommending the nomination of the following person for appointment by the States –

Mr Simon Morris

Mr Morris joined Cameron McKenna in 1980, qualified as a solicitor in 1982 and has been a partner since 1988. He is a member of the firm’s financial services group, advising financial institutions on a broad range of matters. Mr Morris has represented firms in over 300 regulatory and disciplinary proceedings.

Mr Morris is the author of Financial Services: Regulating Investment Business, and is a member of the City of London Law Society Financial Services Sub-Committee. He was named as the Best Regulator Lawyer of 2008 at Complinet’s Fourth Annual Compliance Awards in January 2008.

Other Commissioners have been appointed until the following dates –

28 February 2018

John Harris (Director General)

29 November 2018

Advocate Debbie Prosser

21 April 2020

Lord Eatwell of Stratton St Margaret (Chairman)

31 May 2015

Crown Advocate Cyril Whelan

13 September 2015

Mr Marcus Ruetimann

20 January 2016

Mr John Averty (Deputy Chairman)

17 April 2017

Mr Ian Wright, ACA

17 July 2017

Stephan Wilcke

Recommendation

Having considered the process adopted by the Commission leading up to the recommendation of Mr Morris to be nominated as a Commissioner and Mr Morris’ previous experience, it is recommended that the Chief Minister support Mr Morris’ nomination.

It is recommended that the Minister approves the nomination of Mr Simon Morris for appointment as a Commissioner of the Commission and directs that the Proposition be lodged au Greffe for debate by the States at the earliest opportunity.

Director of Financial Services

3 December 2014

[1] Amended by the Financial Services Commission (Amendment of Law) (Jersey) Regulations 2011