This week the States announced that a review would be commissioned by Jersey Finance, which promotes the industry, next month focussing on the ‘opportunities and challenges’ of Brexit for the Island’s largest sector.
The announcement came as British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, initiating the formal process needed for Britain to leave the EU.
Deputy Geoff Southern, of Reform Jersey, said that he thought the commissioning of the new review signalled fears that the finance sector could lose some of its rights to do business in the EU due to Brexit.
‘If London could be losing its passporting rights, we could too, so there is a threat to the finance industry. I think it’s obvious this has been commissioned because the industry is worried that it could lose business.’
He added that he also believed that the finance sector should have been asked to contribute towards the £900,000 cost of the review, which is being funded from the Island’s £20 million Economic Growth and Development Fund.
‘The finance sector makes a lot of money and so do we from them, but we could have asked them to pay for some of the cost from their profits,’ Deputy Southern said.
‘The message seems to be that finance is the only industry that’s important. We are becoming more and more specialised on just one industry.’
Deputy Andrew Lewis, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee – the States’ spending watchdog – said, however, that the review was ‘extremely important’ because finance is Jersey’s largest industry
He added that his team would monitor the review to ‘ensure the money is well spent’.
‘The role of PAC is to review States spending retrospectively,’ he said.
‘The review is important because there will be opportunities for Jersey, as well as possible challenges, but we won’t know what they are unless we do the work.’
Jersey Finance, meanwhile, said that Brexit negotiations will not affect Jersey’s position as an ‘international finance centre of excellence’.
The organisation’s chief executive, Geoff Cook, said: ‘There is clearly uncertainty about the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, and what the relationship between the UK and EU will look like in two years’ time, but for Jersey’s financial services industry, trade with the EU and UK is governed by bilateral agreements which are unaffected by Brexit.
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