Nothing to see here. The JFSC Dismisses Claims in JEP Investigative Series

In last night’s JEP (16 October 2024) the JEP published the JFSCs chairperson, Jane Platt’s response to the JEP serialisation of its investigation that exposed heavy-handed enforcement tactics, lack of accountability and transparency, and toxic relationship with the Island’s finance industry.

THE JFSCs OPEN LETTER IS HERE:- https://www.jerseyfsc.org/news-and-events/open-letter-from-the-chair-to-the-jep/

THE JEPS RESPONSE TO THIS OPEN LETTER IS HERE [the links are all at the end of this post].

THE Jersey Financial Services Commission has refused to acknowledge the findings of a damning JEP investigation that exposed the regulator’s heavy-handed enforcement tactics, lack of accountability and transparency, and toxic relationship with the Island’s finance industry.

Nearly two weeks since the JEP published serious allegations after a monthslong investigation, JFSC chair Jane Platt – who has been with the regulator less than six months – said that the “characterisation of our organisation is not one that we recognise”.

In a letter to the JEP which is being run in full on page seven, https://edition.pagesuite.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=9beac97d-7a76-4f27-8837-23dc6ddcbd66&share=true&appcode=JEEVPO Ms Platt said that while she “empathise[d]” with the individuals who outlined to the JEP how their lives and careers had been ruined by the JFSC, it had not been able to substantiate their claims and added that the regulator acted “proportionately”.

Among testimony from Islanders about the JFSC’s enforcement division – which is largely recruited from the police force – was an allegation that an employee screamed at one finance professional during an interrogation and had to be physically restrained by a colleague.

“We tread a careful line to uphold Jersey’s obligations to legal and international standards while guiding individuals and firms through our processes [which] can feel rigorous to the firms and individuals involved,” Ms Platt said.

During the JEP’s investigation, Islanders spoke of their powerlessness to counter allegations made by JFSC enforcers without an expensive and lengthy appeal in the Royal Court.

The result, sources said, is that finance professionals are terrified of any encounter with the regulator. Indeed, all but one of those who came forward during the investigation – and the many that have shared similar stories since – insisted on remaining anonymous.

Commenting on the lack of a formal third-party appeals process to decisions made by the JFSC, allowing it – critics say – to act as “judge, jury and executioner” – Ms Platt said: “We have a formal complaint process and details of how to complain are clearly set out on our website.”

The JFSC chair’s response comes in marked contrast to that of External Relations Minister Ian Gorst – the minister responsible for the finance industry – who told the JEP on Saturday that he “recognise[d] the disquiet and concern which some of the individuals had reported and spoken to you about.”

Deputy Gorst added: “I don’t accept bullying in any way, shape or form, and some of the stories that you reported on gave the impression that those individuals felt that they had been bullied, and that’s not appropriate anywhere in any arm of government.”

As a direct result of the JEP’s investigation, Deputy Gorst said that the issue of a third-party appeals process would be added to the scope of the Strategic Review of Jersey’s Regulatory Environment, launched on the same day that MoneyVal’s assessment of the Island’s finance industry was published on 24 July and due to be completed in the second quarter of 2025.

He also said that the government would consider the JFSC being added to the list of organisations that are subject to Freedom of Information legislation, allowing the public to access information about the JFSC’s budget and work that is currently secret.

On the FoI question, Ms Platt was also non-committal: “We welcome the prospect of working with government to take forward learnings from others in considering our future mandate.

“I want the JFSC to continue to evolve as a strong, respected and dependable regulator enabling financial services to flourish in Jersey while keeping Islanders and markets safe.”

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, SAYS JFSC

NEARLY two weeks since the JEP first published damning allegations about the Jersey Financial Services Commission, the regulator has broken its silence.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, its response has been to double down.

In a verbose, muddled and achingly corporate statement, obviously pored over by a legion of well-paid public relations execs, chair Jane Platt said that the picture painted of her organisation by the JEP in recent weeks was “not one that we recognise”.

“We”, presumably, because Ms Platt – who has had a slew of non-executive directorships from London to Zurich – has only been at the regulator since April so could hardly claim to be familiar with either it, Jersey, or the Island’s finance industry at large.

That picture, for those who have been living under a rock or have not picked up the JEP recently, is one of an often remote and sometimes vindictive organisation hated by the industry it purports to regulate.

An organisation that refuses to engage, and has been able to hide behind a cloak of opacity provided to it by this Island’s government for over 20 years.

There’s an almost Trumpian belligerence to the JFSC’s response, a refusal to acknowledge reality.

Or, to cite an example from this side of the Atlantic, the regulator’s response is akin to that famous chant from Millwall Football Club, the black sheep of the English game for as long as any of us can remember: “No one likes us, and we don’t care.”

But there’s a sadness to it, too. Ms Platt, in not wanting to upset the apple cart, has become just another defender of “the Jersey Way”.

Nothing to see here, she is saying – this is the way we’ve always done it, so this is the way it must be done.

It is just this kind of attitude to criticism of any kind that keeps people in this Island silent, cowed, afraid to speak up.

As an outsider – and as someone who has been a non-executive director at the UK Financial Conduct Authority, no less –

imagine a world in which Ms Platt had said: “Yes, mistakes have clearly been made, but now we turn the page.

Imagine a world where this could have changed things for the better.

Imagine she – like Deputy Ian Gorst, the minister responsible for the finance industry – had taken the views of the industry on board and vowed to address them.

This was her opportunity – the regulator’s opportunity – to start again, and it’s an opportunity lost.

To all those who shared their stories with us – and have done so in the days and weeks since we said, for the first time, that the emperor has no clothes – we apologise on the JFSC’s behalf.

It may be willing to deny your experience and your testimony, to brush your stories off like the proverbial dust on its shoulder, but we won’t. We’ll continue telling them. Until they listen.

Nothing to see here, says JFSC.

JFSC REJECTS CLAIMS MADE IN JEP INVESTIGATIVE SERIES - SOURCE

• https://linkscan.io/scan/ux/aHR0cHM6Ly9lZGl0aW9uLnBhZ2VzdWl0ZS5jb20vcG9wb3ZlcnMvZHluYW1pY19hcnRpY2xlX3BvcG92ZXIuYXNweD9hcnRndWlkPWJlNWI2YWIyLTQ1NzMtNDM5Yi04YmY1LTEwMDZkNjIxMjdlMSZhcHBjb2RlPUpFRVZQTyZlZ3VpZD0wNjQ4MmU1NS01MmI5LTQ2NGItYTE3MC03ODcwNmE0OGFiN2QmcG51bT0xIw==/11EFDC81519041FC479C19486968D74733AD3DE8CB4ED322D71EF9C9DE3AC805?c=1&i=1&docs=1
• https://edition.pagesuite.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=9beac97d-7a76-4f27-8837-23dc6ddcbd66&share=true&appcode=JEEVPO 

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, SAYS JFSC - SOURCE

• https://edition.pagesuite.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=d8f8a74a-5b6f-41df-b856-0b3e400d50d3&share=true&appcode=JEEVPO

JFSC

• https://edition.pagesuite.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=9beac97d-7a76-4f27-8837-23dc6ddcbd66&share=true&appcode=JEEVPO