JERSEY has defended its stance on beneficial ownership after the UK government’s anti-corruption czar told the Financial Times that Westminster could legislate to “force the hands” of Jersey and the other Crown Dependencies to release information on who owns offshore companies.
The newspaper quoted Baroness Margaret Hodge, who has long campaigned for greater transparency in British international finance centres like Jersey and Guernsey, as saying the UK government “could consider revisiting the advantages” that its dependencies and territories enjoy as leverage in negotiations.
Or, she added, it could legislate to force their hands.
But External Relations Minister Ian Gorst said that the way that Jersey ran its register was not a matter for the UK to “interfere with”.
He said: “This is not the first time that Baroness Hodge has made such commentary or suggestions, and we disagree with that. The way that Jersey and the other Crown dependencies hold their beneficial ownership information in their company registers is a wholly domestic matter, and it’s not something for the UK to interfere with.
“We are very firm in our conversations with them, and even in extremis, if they decided to draft an Order in Council, we wouldn’t implement it.”
Deputy Gorst added: “This is slightly disappointing, because actually we know that fighting financial crime requires cooperation, and we already cooperate with the UK government in regard to that.
“We’ve got the something that’s called the exchange of notes, which means that we give information to the UK on request in the normal course of events within 24 hours, but where they believe it’s urgent, within as little as an hour, and that system works really well.”
Deputy Gorst added that Jersey was a member of something called the Egmont Group, which requested and exchanged information, and it was also working with the EU as drafts a new directive on data sharing.
The FT reported that Baroness Hodge and UK Justice Minister Jake Richards were in Guernsey on Monday as part of a fresh bid to persuade them to go further in tackling illicit finance.
Deputy Gorst said Guernsey had invited the UK delegation to the island, possibly in connection with a summit on illicit finance that the UK was due to host this month, but which has since been postponed until December.
The External Relations Minister added that he personally got on very well with Baroness Hodge and they both agreed that the UK and the Crown Dependencies should be working more closely together to fight international financial crime. However, they did not agree on the issue of public registers.
