Big finance firms gloomy over prospects

Friday 30 January 2015

Optimism and the hope of a profitable 2015 are waning in the finance industry.

The results of an official survey into business trends reveal that while there’s more business activity in the industry, the level of optimism has fallen to its lowest level in almost two years.

Larger finance firms are generally more pessimistic than smaller ones but the trend is reversed when it comes to attracting new business.

Fewer firms expect to make a profit in 2015 compared to 2014 but still over 50 per cent of businesses anticipate ending the year in the black - accountancy and law firms feeling the most bullish.

The Business Tendency Survey is published every three months by the States Statistics Unit. It aims to get a snapshot of the Jersey economy by canvassing the views of business leaders.

Around a fifth of finance firms are positive about the future but this has fallen from almost 50 per cent at the tail end of 2013.

The main challenge to the finance industry, businesses say, is unlikely to be home-grown; rather changes to international regulations will pose the biggest threat.

Outside of the finance industry, the level of optimism remains largely unchanged. The vast majority of firms expect to see their profits on a par with 2014 or fall this year.