The new 64-page booklet, which may be downloaded here, outlines the intentions of what is known as the Jersey Financial Services Commission’s Review of Financial Advice (RFA), which was conceived in the wake of the UK’s Retail Distribution Review (RDR). Both are packages of regulatory reforms that were designed to improve the standard of financial advice on offer in the respective jurisdictions.
Unlike the UK’s RDR, however, which took effect on 1 Jan, Jersey’s RFA will become law on 1 Jan 2014.
Under the new regulations, financial advisers employed by Jersey companies who advise clients who are not so-called ‘professional clients’, must meet “specific, new qualifications requirements, at Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) level 4”…by the end of 2013, no matter where their clients are resident, CISI notes, in an introduction to its booklet.
The legal distinction between professional clients and non-professional, or retail, clients is among the key features of Jersey’s RFA, as reported here in November. Also, as a general rule, under the new RFA, retail clients resident in Jersey will generally not be permitted to pay for the advice they receive through commission payments.
Ruth Martin, CISI’s managing director, said many advisers on Jersey are already qualified at the new minimum level, but she added that CISI was looking forward to working with “any firms and supporting individuals” who are not, or who are interested in going beyond the minimum standard.
CISI officials expect that in Jersey, as is the case in the UK, many advisers will chose to go after above-level-4 qualifications, “such as the CISI’s Certificate in Private Client Advice and Management, which is at level 6,” the organisation noted in a statement announcing the publication of its new booklet on the RFA.
CISI has almost 1,000 members in Jersey.
As reported, Guernsey last year launched a consultation on whether it should adopt an RDR-type review, while the Isle of Man is putting together its own scheme, also going live next January.
CISI is based in London and has representative offices in a number of key financial centres, including Dublin, Singapore, Dubai, Mumbai and Colombo. It sets exams and offers professional qualifications for those who work in the financial services and investment industry, and has around 40,000 members around the world.
