Jersey will provide financial data to UK within 24 hours

Tuesday 12 April 2016

Jersey has struck an agreement with the UK to provide financial data to the UK authorities within 24 hours of a request – and within one hour if the request is urgent and linked to terrorism.

Chief Minister Ian Gorst has announced the deal with the UK government after ten days of revelations from “The Panama Papers”, a huge leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm that laid bare the tax affairs of some of the richest and most powerful people in the world.

Senator Gorst says that the new arrangement, which builds on a long-standing deal to share information with tax authorities and law enforcement agencies, uses technology to share details from Jersey’s Central Register of Beneficial Ownership. The register, which is held by the Jersey Financial Services Commission, holds the details of who really owns all Jersey companies and corporate structures.

The agreement is due to be formally signed later today. In the House of Commons yesterday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that all of the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories - except for Guernsey and Anguilla - had agreed to sign up to the new deal.

It is expected to be formally signed today.

In the same statement, Mr Cameron also pledged that a new law criminalising the facilitation of tax evasion would be brought into effect in the UK by the end of the year. A similar law has been in place in Jersey for several years.

In a statement, Senator Gorst said that the need to share verified financial data was particularly clear in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels.

He said: “This new agreement will involve the use of technology to speed up our response to requests, so we can answer non-urgent queries in 24 hours and urgent queries in one hour.

“This is in response to a need for information without delay where terrorist activities are involved and is of particular significance in the light of recent events in Paris and Brussels.

“The terms of this agreement are essentially business as usual for Jersey: the island regulates all trust and company service providers and the professionals who provide these services are subject to ongoing supervision. They are required to provide accurate, up to date information on beneficial owners to the Companies’ Registry, which forms the central register of beneficial ownership.”

Mr Cameron has been under increasing pressure since the release of the Panama Papers showed that his late-father held investments in the Bahamas and in Jersey. He has now disclosed his tax return for the last five years after demands for increased transparency in the financial affairs of senior politicians – UK Chancellor George Osborne and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn also disclosed their tax forms for last year yesterday.