JFSC Mid-Year Update – Notes

The JFSC mid-year update took place on Tuesday 23 June 2026 at The Royal Yacht in Saint Helier, Jersey. The event offered insights from JFSC leadership and government partners on the Commission's strategic priorities, the ongoing Time to Win programme, the evolution of the supervisory model toward risk-based and intelligence-led approaches, Jersey's position in digital assets and tokenisation, and internal advancements in technology and workforce skills.

Discussions focused on strengthening Jersey's competitiveness as a leading international finance centre while maintaining strong regulatory and financial-crime-prevention standards.

Note on Accuracy [full disclaimer is found at the end of this record]

• These notes are a summarised record of discussions at the JFSC Mid-Year Update. They are not a verbatim transcript and may contain paraphrasing, selective emphasis or omissions.
• The notes have not been reviewed or approved by the Jersey Financial Services Commission or the Government of Jersey.
• Readers should verify any regulatory interpretations, policy details or action items directly with official sources before relying on them.

Key Highlights

• JFSC Role in Economy: Financial services make up 45% of Jersey's economy and two-thirds of tax revenue, crucial for jobs and public services.
• Strategic Priorities: Focus on simple regulation, innovation, risk-based supervision, tackling financial crime, and improving customer service speeds.
• Time to Win Program: Launched with over 1,500 attendees, aims to simplify business, support innovation, and maintain government backing through political changes.
• Supervisory Model: Shift to risk-based, intelligence-led regulation with faster approvals and more focused examinations to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Digital Assets Strategy: Jersey supports 12 VASPs, fast-tracks tokenised asset applications (5-day SLA), and targets regulated digital finance growth, avoiding speculative crypto.
• Technology & Skills: AI tools widely used internally; staff trained for adaptability; ongoing fraud prevention with cross-jurisdiction cooperation and updated regulatory reforms.

Detailed Session Notes

JFSC Strategic Direction and Competitiveness

The JFSC is focused on executing a clear strategy to boost Jersey's competitiveness by supporting growth, improving regulatory clarity, and enhancing service quality.

• Jane Platt emphasised JFSC's critical role in Jersey's economy. Financial services account for 45% of economic activity and two-thirds of tax revenue, underlining the sector's importance for employment and public services.
• The JFSC supports the Time to Win program to strengthen competitiveness across government and industry.
• The strategy focuses on being a trusted regulator that enables economic growth by balancing pragmatic regulation with innovation, especially in digital assets and AI.
• Jane highlighted the need to shift from businesses choosing Jersey to Jersey actively attracting business, due to capital mobility and global competition.
• The JFSC aims to simplify regulation, improve timelines, and meet service level agreements to make Jersey more business friendly.
• Four strategic priorities guide JFSC's approach to competitiveness:
• Supporting growth by delivering a simple regulatory framework and encouraging innovation without compromising financial crime safeguards.
• Adopting a risk-based, proportionate supervisory approach to focus efforts where they matter most, evidenced by changes in Schedule 2 and transaction consent regimes.
• Combating financial crime by aligning with international standards and targeting areas of greatest risk to protect Jersey's reputation.
• Delivering excellent customer service through backlog reduction, faster turnaround times, customer service training, and system investments including registry digitisation.
• JFSC office relocation is planned for October to improve operational efficiency and engagement by consolidating split teams under one roof. A thorough business case demonstrated better cost-effectiveness than upgrading the current premises.
• This move aims to support improved collaboration and service delivery as part of the broader strategy.
• Strong governance and accountability structures are in place, with Commissioners overseeing strategy delivery and executive performance, including recruitment of new commissioners to maintain leadership strength.
• The importance of collaboration across government, industry, and the regulator is reinforced as essential for delivering growth.

Time to Win Program and Government Alignment

The Time to Win program is central to Jersey's growth agenda, and strong government and industry support is helping it move forward through the political transition.

• Time to Win was launched in March with significant engagement and positive industry feedback, including over 1,500 attendees at the Jersey launch and continuous input from financial services firms.
• The program aims to simplify the business environment, support innovation, reduce cost and complexity, and improve Jersey's attractiveness as an international finance centre.
• Notable progress includes reforms in the Jersey private fund regime, with increased registrations and new capital inflow, signalling positive growth trends.
• Government transition post-election is expected to maintain continuity on Time to Win, with leading candidates endorsing the program and a new Council of Ministers focusing on strategic policy and budget decisions by September.
• Early advice from civil servants will emphasise adopting Time to Win, ensuring the program remains a government priority.
• Clear implementation plans are being finalised by government, JFSC, and Jersey Finance teams to sustain momentum during political changes.
• Ongoing legislative and regulatory work aligned with the Time to Win roadmap includes mergers and takeovers drafting, Schedule 2 updates, and consultations on consent regimes, with a focus on delivering tangible improvements by year-end.
• New initiatives such as the Digital Assets Innovation Council and an Insights Function pilot are active, reflecting government-regulator-industry partnership.

Supervisory Evolution: Risk-Based and Intelligence-Led Approach

JFSC is transforming its supervisory model to be more risk-based, proportionate, and intelligence-driven, with a focus on material risks and improved regulatory efficiency. (David Eacott and Kerry Petulla)

• David Eacott outlined a threefold supervisory change: philosophical, practical, and cultural to modernise and sharpen regulatory focus.
• Philosophically, supervision will prioritise partnership with industry, risk prevention over remediation, and proportionality to target highest risks.
• Practically, recent improvements include faster fund authorisations, updated SLA frameworks, and a shift from broad thematic examinations to focused, evidence-led supervision.
• Culturally, the JFSC is fostering openness, engagement, and judgment-based supervision, encouraging firms to collaborate for regulatory certainty proactively.
• Significant gains in authorisations were achieved despite global challenges, with double the volume of fund service firms and trust company businesses authorised compared to last year.
• Improvements in turnaround and quality of service are ongoing, with plans to embed further enhancements throughout the year.
• Supervision now uses a graded framework for findings and specialised directors for key sectors to tailor engagement and risk management effectively.
• Over half of financial crime examinations are now more focused, reducing unnecessary burden.
• New supervisory tools like questionnaires improve transparency and efficiency in information gathering.
• Engagement frequency and depth will be calibrated by firm size and risk, replacing fixed annual cycles with a flexible, risk-led approach.
• Intelligence is a core enabler allowing timely, targeted decisions and earlier intervention, with a shift from volume to value in intelligence sharing.
• This supports a model where low-risk firms receive lighter supervision while high-risk issues get prioritised attention.

Intelligence Capability Enhancement

JFSC is investing in and evolving its intelligence function to support proactive risk management and international collaboration. (Kerry Petulla)

• Kerry Petulla emphasised the transition from reactive to proactive intelligence use, focusing on early risk identification and proportionate intervention.
• Intelligence sources include internal supervision, registry data, whistleblowing, and international partners via FinNet and other networks.
• The JFSC does not directly access suspicious activity reports but receives relevant intelligence from the Financial Intelligence Unit.
• The intelligence process is becoming more selective and contextual, with only well-developed, actionable intelligence shared with supervision and enforcement to increase effectiveness and reduce unnecessary firm engagement.
• This reduces volume but increases the quality of information driving regulatory focus.
• Key investments include specialist training, open-source intelligence tools, and integration across regulatory functions to improve analysis and decision-making.
• The use of open-source intelligence supports operational, tactical, and strategic insights while maintaining data integrity and legal compliance.
• Strengthened relationships with local and international partners enhance cross-border risk management.
• Efforts to police the regulatory perimeter and identify unauthorised business will be enhanced, supporting earlier intervention and more efficient formal requests for assistance internationally.
• These measures aim to deliver a more proportionate, focused, and effective regulatory approach aligned with Jersey's role as an international finance centre.

Digital Assets Strategy and Industry Positioning

Jersey is building on its established digital asset sector and innovation council to strengthen its position as a leading hub for tokenisation and regulated digital finance. (Panel discussion with Alan Ainsworth (JFSC), Lewis Fellas (Bletchley Park Investment Management), Tom Grogan (Mourant))

• Panellists highlighted digital assets as a growing and transformative part of finance, focusing on tokenisation and stablecoins as key innovations enabling 24/7 settlement, efficiency, and new asset classes.
• Tom Grogan described tokenisation as splitting ownership of real-world assets into tradable tokens, with stablecoins supporting price stability for transactions.
• Lewis Fellas emphasised demystifying digital assets as decentralised databases offering transparency and highlighted institutional adoption, including BlackRock's $3 billion money market fund.
• Jersey's digital asset ecosystem is mature and diverse, with 12 virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and examples of tokenised real estate, funds, equities, and niche assets like a tokenised wine index.
• The JFSC has issued guidance on tokenisation and maintains a dedicated Digital Assets Supervision Team and an Innovation Hub focused on supporting both local and incoming businesses.
• Recent Digital Assets Innovation Council initiatives include a Digital Assets Trading Hub and a DeFi pilot program to understand risks and controls around decentralised finance (DeFi) models such as peer-to-peer exchanges.
• Jersey has committed to fast-tracking low-risk tokenised asset applications with an SLA of five business days and reduced VASP authorisation timelines from 30 to 20 days.
• Strategic advice for Jersey includes doubling down on its existing regulated digital asset niche rather than pursuing more speculative crypto sectors and appointing a senior government champion to represent the sector and facilitate growth.
• Simplifying regulatory frameworks and improving clarity for entrepreneurs are critical to reducing ambiguity and building mutual trust between industry and regulator.
• Embracing institutional inflows and maintaining regulatory stability are seen as key growth levers.

Technology, Skills, and Fraud Prevention

JFSC is advancing the use of internal technology, building staff skills to adapt to change, and working together on fraud prevention to strengthen regulatory effectiveness. (Contributions from Dan Gardebra, Alexis Dolling and JFSC Executive team during Q&A)

• Dan Gardebra reported successful AI integration with over 200 active users and 200,000 prompts in the Copilot chat pilot supporting decision-making and workflow improvements.
• Multiple AI agents focus on cultural support, communications tone, and supervision data analysis, with more in development to enrich staff capabilities.
• Emphasis is placed on keeping humans central to decisions and building staff understanding of AI's strengths and limits through education.
• Alexis Dolling highlighted the importance of adaptability, continuous learning, and leadership in embedding new skills and cultural change among staff to embrace evolving technology and ways of working.
• Psychological safety and encouragement to experiment are key leadership priorities for effective change management.
• JFSC is actively addressing payment fraud with cross-jurisdictional collaboration across Crown dependencies, aiming to develop a coordinated approach distinct from the UK's reimbursement model.
• Engagement with Jersey Banking Association and ongoing consultation plans underline commitment to rapid fraud mitigation.
• Fraud prevention education and outreach programs are led by the Fraud Prevention Forum chaired by Kerry Petulla.
• Supervisory visits will continue to be risk-based and flexible, with transparency around risk assessments and the ability to adjust frequency based on firm controls and risk evolution.
• Larger and higher-risk firms will see more engagement to prevent issues escalating, while well-run lower-risk firms will have lighter interaction.
• JFSC is ensuring banking sector involvement in digital assets through representation on the Innovation Council and recognition of banks' global engagement with tokenised deposits and stablecoins.
• This inclusion supports integrated ecosystem development and influence over digital asset regulation and innovation.
• Schedule 2 reform consultation is ongoing, with a planned package release in August, consolidating feedback to simplify and harmonise requirements for industry clarity and ease of compliance.
• The goal is to conclude reforms before year-end to maintain regulatory momentum and competitiveness.
• Intelligence team capabilities are being enhanced with UK-accredited trainer support and advanced open-source intelligence tools to improve evidence collection, whistleblower handling, and international cooperation.
• These improvements align with the broader digital and skills development agenda within the JFSC to meet current and future challenges effectively.

Action Items

The following action items were identified during the session:

• Jill Britton (JFSC) = Share details of the JFSC office relocation, including timing and new address, with stakeholders.
• Government of Jersey (Tom Le Feuvre) = Finalise and publish implementation plans for the Time to Win program by the end of June.
• Helen and legislative team = Complete legislative updates on mergers and takeovers, secured creditor orders, and Kobo amendments targeting final push for completion.
• JFSC and Government = Prepare comprehensive consultation package on Schedule 2 reforms for release by August, allowing post-summer industry feedback.
• JFSC Intelligence team = Roll out UK-accredited whistleblower training and ongoing specialist skills development including AI and open source intelligence by year-end.
• JFSC Supervision team = Embed risk-based supervisory approach with new suite of tools and questionnaires, replacing broad thematic exams over the next 12-18 months.
• JFSC and Jersey Finance = Develop a concierge service for firm onboarding and authorisations, continuing to improve regulatory timelines and clarity.
• Digital Assets Innovation Council = Provide strategic recommendations on digital assets to the Financial Services Advisory Board by early July.
• Fraud Prevention Forum = Implement a joint Crown dependencies approach to payment fraud prevention, with engagement from the Jersey Banking Association, and initiate a forthcoming public consultation on standards.
• JFSC Leadership & HR (Alexis Dolling) = Develop and train staff in adaptability, agile mindset, and new tech skills combining AI integration with human oversight.
• Industry: Encourage industry participation in consultations, provide feedback on regulatory reforms, and engage in collaborative dialogue to support the shift to risk-based supervision and innovation efforts.

Important Disclaimer – Accuracy of These Notes

These notes are a summary of the JFSC Mid-Year Update held on 23 June 2026 at The Royal Yacht, Saint Helier. They reflect the note-taker’s interpretation, recollection and selective recording of the presentations, panel discussion and Q&A session.

While care has been taken to ensure accuracy — including verification of speaker names against the official agenda and removal of timestamps — these notes:

• Are not a verbatim transcript.
• May contain paraphrasing, summarisation or emphasis that does not fully reflect the original wording or nuance.
• Have not been reviewed, verified or approved by the Jersey Financial Services Commission, the Government of Jersey, or any of the speakers or panellists.
• Should not be treated as official minutes or an authoritative record of the event.

Particular caution should be exercised in relation to:

• Any regulatory interpretations or statements about future supervisory approach, policy changes or legislative timelines.
• Details of the Time to Win programme and implementation plans.
• Action items, which represent matters raised during the session and do not necessarily constitute formal commitments or agreed deadlines.
• Forward-looking comments regarding digital assets, technology adoption or organisational changes.

Readers are strongly advised to verify any information of importance directly with the JFSC, the relevant Government of Jersey department, or the original speakers before placing reliance on these notes.

These notes are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal, regulatory, financial or professional advice. No warranty is given regarding completeness or accuracy, and the note-taker accepts no liability for any loss or damage arising from reliance on the contents of these notes.

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