Failure to Prevent offences: a UK, Guernsey and Jersey comparison

In an ever more interconnected global financial world, the importance of jurisdictions introducing measures to effectively identify and combat financial crime, and then robustly enforcing those measures, cannot be overstated.   

As leading international financial centres ranking in the Top 50 Global Financial Centres Index, Guernsey and Jersey have long been attractive jurisdictions for wealth and asset management. With this benefit comes the burden of being on the front line of the fight against financial crimes perpetrated by those who might use the jurisdictions for nefarious purposes.   

Reputation is everything: it is hard earned and easily lost. 

Like other leading financial jurisdictions, Guernsey and Jersey have identified and sought to plug gaps in their corporate criminal framework with the introduction of failure to prevent (FTP) offences, which reduce the prosecutorial burden presented by the identification principle.   

In a short series of articles, our dispute and regulatory experts Bryan De Verneuil-Smith, Fay Warrilow and Ruairi Pollins (Guernsey) and Tom Hall (Jersey) explore FTP offences in the Channel Islands while Global Head of Regulatory Rachel Cropper-Mawer (Jersey) examines the new UK FTP fraud offence and the existing FTP framework. 

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Disclaimer

This client briefing has been prepared for clients and professional associates of Ogier. The information and expressions of opinion which it contains are not intended to be a comprehensive study or to provide legal advice and should not be treated as a substitute for specific advice concerning individual situations.

Regulatory information can be found under Legal Notice