Guernsey Funds Forum: Regulation in ‘tug of war’
21 May 2025 Guernsey
Image: Jack McRae
On Tuesday, the 2025 iteration of the Guernsey Funds Forum considered the future of the funds industry on the Channel Island.
A panel discussion, moderated by Nick Watt, political editor of Newsnight, considered ‘Guernsey's edge: global regs, liquidity, and fund innovation’. The panellists focused on how Guernsey has a lead in launching and domiciling fund structures.
Focusing on regulation, Stephanie Biggs, partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, described the situation as “a little bit of a tug of war.”
Biggs explained that the industry is having to play a tricky balancing act with how much regulatory oversight there should be. “We're a little bit worried that something might go wrong and we want to keep an eye on things,” she explained. “Plus we've got all this pressure from growth and we need to take brakes off. We need to deregulate and get everything going.”
Jerry Paul, Finance & Operations at Queen's Park Equity, considered the advantages the island holds over other domiciles — particularly geographically. Guernsey’s positioning between the UK and the EU “allows them to be a little more flexible about how they apply certain regulations to certain situations.
“If I was to characterise the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, nimble and collaborative would be the two words I'd use in terms of driving product innovation.”
Paul highlights Guernsey’s Private Investment Fund (PIF) regime as a strong example of the industry’s collaboration on the island. “It came in a decade ago and the latest updates come as a result of industry collaboration, allowing us to boost the number of investors in our funds without having to switch regime,” he explains.
“There is a genuine collaboration between the GFSC and the professional practitioners on the island that allow registrations to happen extremely quickly. In Guernsey, you can measure things in days — in others, it’s more like weeks and months.”
Paul continues to point to Guernsey’s reputation as a trusted, secure domicile as a reason for its success.
“You've also got to have a reputational quality that is global,” he continued. “There are no [Financial Action Task Force] grey-list issues, there are no black-list issues. It's actually even up to third country status within the EU which points to the quality”.
A panel discussion, moderated by Nick Watt, political editor of Newsnight, considered ‘Guernsey's edge: global regs, liquidity, and fund innovation’. The panellists focused on how Guernsey has a lead in launching and domiciling fund structures.
Focusing on regulation, Stephanie Biggs, partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, described the situation as “a little bit of a tug of war.”
Biggs explained that the industry is having to play a tricky balancing act with how much regulatory oversight there should be. “We're a little bit worried that something might go wrong and we want to keep an eye on things,” she explained. “Plus we've got all this pressure from growth and we need to take brakes off. We need to deregulate and get everything going.”
Jerry Paul, Finance & Operations at Queen's Park Equity, considered the advantages the island holds over other domiciles — particularly geographically. Guernsey’s positioning between the UK and the EU “allows them to be a little more flexible about how they apply certain regulations to certain situations.
“If I was to characterise the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, nimble and collaborative would be the two words I'd use in terms of driving product innovation.”
Paul highlights Guernsey’s Private Investment Fund (PIF) regime as a strong example of the industry’s collaboration on the island. “It came in a decade ago and the latest updates come as a result of industry collaboration, allowing us to boost the number of investors in our funds without having to switch regime,” he explains.
“There is a genuine collaboration between the GFSC and the professional practitioners on the island that allow registrations to happen extremely quickly. In Guernsey, you can measure things in days — in others, it’s more like weeks and months.”
Paul continues to point to Guernsey’s reputation as a trusted, secure domicile as a reason for its success.
“You've also got to have a reputational quality that is global,” he continued. “There are no [Financial Action Task Force] grey-list issues, there are no black-list issues. It's actually even up to third country status within the EU which points to the quality”.
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