Following a recent groundbreaking China visit, Guernsey Finance’s outgoing chief executive, Fiona Le Poidevin, told China Business Law Journal about her plans to prepare the ground for further China ties with the island in her new role.
“I have, with Guernsey Finance, developed relationships with the stock exchanges in Hong Kong – where we have specific approval for Guernsey companies to list on the exchange – Shanghai and Shenzhen,” Le Poidevin said.
“As I move to the Channel Islands Securities Exchange [as the new CEO from January 2015], one of my priorities will be to identify opportunities for the exchange in Asia, including China. Certainly I believe that the [exchange] should be promoted more heavily in the region and as such, I am hopeful that I’ll be able to build on some of those relationships that I have developed during my time at Guernsey Finance.”
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Le Poidevin was part of an official delegation from Guernsey Finance representatives to China that secured an agreement in the capital. The new chief executive of Guernsey Finance is Dominic Wheatley.
She said China’s recent crackdown on tax evasion had aroused interest in Guernsey’s strategies on transparency over the course of the delegation’s two-week October visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
“This sort of crackdown on tax evasion is supported by the people we met in China, including the 140 delegates who attended our private wealth management event in Shanghai, however they are also concerned about their privacy,” she said.
“The Guernsey government signed a tax information exchange agreement with the central government tax authorities in 2010, and last year we signed up with the US to FATCA [Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act], and reached a similar agreement with the UK authorities. Indeed, Guernsey has never had banking secrecy and we support transparency, but we also believe that individuals also have the right to privacy.
“In the UK and Europe there are plans to establish public registers of beneficial ownership, but the Guernsey Government believes that this fails to protects the privacy of individuals and brings with it risks, not least to the safety of those high net worth individuals and their families, where the extent of their wealth may become public knowledge.
“In Guernsey, corporate service providers are already required to hold this information but it is only made available to the Guernsey regulatory or tax authorities where there is a proven reason for it to be disclosed and it is never made public. We believe that these arrangements strike the right balance between combating illegal activity while also protecting privacy and respecting the right to confidentiality and will continue to prove attractive to clients from all around the world, including China.”
Le Poidevin and the delegation – including Kevin Stewart, Guernsey’s commerce and employment minister, and representatives of the island’s finance industry – secured a co-operation agreement with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Financial Work. The agreement follows a similar co-operation signed with the Shanghai Municipal Financial Services Office in 2010 and regulatory agreements with the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
“We are continuing to build relationships and whereas previously we have focused on the private wealth management sector, now we are growing our ties within the investment funds sector, for example with the Asset Management Association of China. There is plenty of follow up for us to be undertaking in 2015,” Le Poidevin said.
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