BL Magazine Issue 39 July/August 2015 by BL Magazine

BL MAGAZINE

ISSUE 39 JULY/AUGUST 2015

finance The opportunities in Africa, the importance of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;substanceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, and a round-up of regulation

business Why it pays to have multilingual staff, how to write stellar content, and the pains of growing a business

technology Compliance comes down on tweeting, using your veins as ID, and the Waterfox wunderkind

Nerd mentality

Why are women excluded from tech?

ISSUE 39 JULY/AUGUST 2015

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We get straight to the point, managing complexity to get to the essentials. Every piece of work is a collaboration. We listen actively, asking the right questions, focused on what really matters. We deliver targeted, pragmatic advice with absolute clarity. To the point.

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Welcome

In a time when the Channel Islands are coming under continued threat – be that in the form of legislation affecting the finance industry or the challenges faced by tourism from other destinations – a hefty reality check is perhaps, exactly what they need

From the sublime to the radical

e all have moments when we feel like we’re just running along on our hamster wheels, getting things ‘off our desks’ or ‘out of the door’. And then there are moments that make everything worthwhile – even special. Here at BL, we’ve had a number of those moments lately. The first one was the exceptionally positive reaction to the new look of the magazine. Even though we were really happy with it, you can never be sure how everyone else is going to react. We launched our rebrand at the fabulous CCA Galleries in St Helier in May and, much to our delight (and relief, truth be told), the magazine was really well received. What really surprised us, though, was the reaction since then – with people emailing and calling to say how much they like it and have enjoyed reading it. We’re grateful for all the kind words of support, and only hope that we can maintain the standard we’ve set ourselves. Second up: the day after the launch we held our Jersey Trusts Conference at the Pomme D’Or (quite what possessed us to run this event the day after our own launch party will likely remain a mystery). Without question it was the most enjoyable and successful event we’ve held in the islands so far, with incredible feedback from our delegates – and it leaves us in very good shape for both our Channel Islands Funds Forum in Jersey in October and our Guernsey Trusts Conference in November. To be honest, those events will be on us before we know it – it’s hard to believe we’re already in the latter half of the year. After two rewarding days, we had a bit of a comedown as we got back to the everyday aspects of putting this issue of the magazine together. We’ve been very fortunate in the past to have interviewed some of the leading figures from the Channel Islands, but the third great moment in recent months was what came out of our interview with John Henwood (see page 18). John is one of the most recognised and respected figures in Jersey, but 35 years in the media have also made him insightful and forthright. While it’s clear he loves the island on which he lives, he’s not afraid to expose the failings of the Channel Islands – or put forward his views on how to address them. In a time when the Channel Islands are coming under continued threat – be that in the form of legislation affecting the finance industry or the challenges faced by tourism from other destinations – a hefty reality check is perhaps, exactly what they need. And John certainly wasn’t afraid of giving it. Alongside John’s fascinating interview, in this issue we summarise the major regulatory changes affecting Guernsey and Jersey and we take a look at the challenge of BEPS and how the islands are addressing ‘substance’. And, of course, much more. Enjoy.

John Henwood

The BL team

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Contents

Guernsey releases Tourism Strategic Plan

Image: Kiev.Victor / Shutterstock.com

Guernsey Business Trends Survey results published

he States of Guernsey has published its Tourism Strategic Plan 20152025, outlining some key goals for the industry in the next 10 years. Over the last 12 months, Mike Hopkins, Director of Marketing and Tourism, Commerce and Employment Department, has worked closely with the Chamber of Commerce Tourism and Hospitality sub group to develop a joint 10-year strategy. The plan sets ambitious but achievable growth targets over the next 10 years, with forecast visitor growth of around 30 per cent, delivering 400,000 visitors a year by 2025. The plan sets out five clear strategic aims that will help both industry and the States of Guernsey to focus on the priorities, and collaboratively achieve growth for the sector during this period. They are: • Evaluate new, sustainable and competitive routes to the islands; • Develop marketing and messaging that is consistent and compelling; • Develop a positive environment for growth and investment; • Deliver an exceptional visitor experience; and

• Strengthen the islands’ unique product offering. The document covers the main challenges facing the industry and also identifies 22 action plans that, with public and private investment and focus, will help to deliver 30 per cent growth in the sector’s economic contribution over the next 10 years. Luke Wheadon, Chairman of the Hospitality and Tourism Sub group, said: “The plan has challenging yet achievable targets, and importantly illustrates the desire for both industry and government to work closely together to achieve their common aims.” Tourism is a vital industry for Guernsey’s economy, accounting for approaching five per cent of GDP (direct and indirect spend), and roughly eight per cent of employment. According to the most recent figures, Guernsey has seen an increase in the number of people staying in the island. There’s been a 7.3 per cent rise in staying-visitor numbers in Q1 2015, compared to the first quarter of last year. n

he results of the annual Guernsey Business Trends Survey have been released by the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce. The survey is organised by Young Business Group (YBG) in conjunction with the Chamber and BWCI, and presents the views of Guernsey’s business community on performance and confidence levels within their respective sectors and more generally in the island. Respondents represent a wide spectrum of sectors that make up Guernsey’s business community, including hospitality and tourism, construction, retail, finance and transport. On the whole the results were positive, with 55 per cent of businesses (as compared to 48 per cent last year) reporting their profitability in 2014 to be either substantially or slightly up on 2013, and over 60 per cent of businesses reporting their turnover in 2014 to be either substantially or slightly up on 2013. These figures are the best for a number of years. When questioned on their confidence in the island’s economy over the next year, however, 14 per cent (compared to 15 per cent last year) reported feeling much more or more confident than this time last year; and 42 per cent are feeling less confident (compared to 28 per cent last year). Results indicated that the three issues the business sector sees as the highest priorities for the island to address are: • Reviewing the current system of government to improve efficiency/effectiveness; • Improving travel links with the UK; and • Addressing the level of skills in the island – particularly among younger members of the community. Respondents were also asked how they think Guernsey should deal with the budget deficit from a variety of options – the most popular was further controls on States departmental spending, which was selected by 84 per cent of respondents The full survey results can be found on the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce website. n

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CEO, CHAMELEON GROUP Carl Methven carl.methven@blglobal.co.uk EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nick Kirby nick.kirby@blglobal.co.uk ART DIRECTOR Angela Lyons DEPUTY EDITOR/SUB EDITOR Nicola Tann BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT Jane Gregory jane.gregory@blglobal.co.uk ADVERTISING sales@blglobal.co.uk NEWS AND EDITORIAL news@blglobal.co.uk GENERAL ENQUIRIES enquiries@blglobal.co.uk

The latest financial and business news and views from the bailiwick

36 hedge funds

A round-up of the latest business news from the Channel Islands and beyond

Just how will they be affected by the arrival of BEPS?

14 Appointments

The importance of having a real presence in the islands, and not just a ‘letter box’

Recent key hires for Guernsey and Jersey businesses

18 Interview John Henwood, Chairman of Visit Jersey, chats with us about the future of the island

Finance 23 AFRICA How investors are waking up to the opportunities the continent has to offer

41 substance

business 44 content marketing Why are businesses failing time and time again to use content marketing well?

48 foreign languages Are companies that employ multilingual staff getting ahead of their competition?

29 regulation

52 business growth

An expert round-up of all the key regulation affecting the Channel Islands right now

Why is it so difficult to move from start-up to scale-up, and what can firms do about it?

States of Jersey Financial Report and Accounts 2014 released

technology 59 social media New rules from the FCA are making it difficult for financial firms to get the most out of social media

62 alex kontos The 20-year-old tech wunderkind taking on the behemoth internet browsers

65 biometrics From finger veins and voice recognition to our tears and even how our ears touch our phones – just how will we identify ourselves next?

he States of Jersey Financial Report and Accounts 2014 were released at the beginning of June by the Treasury and Resources Minister. The highlights were: • A strong balance sheet: the balance sheet grew further in 2014 with an increase in net asset balance of £73 million to £5.7bn, largely as a result of investment returns; • General revenue income was maintained despite challenging circumstances but was less than originally forecast; • Capital expenditure: departments, trading operations and Andium Homes spent a total of £75 million in 2014 compared to £52 million in the previous year. The strength of the balance sheet not only allowed for capital expenditure to grow, but also enabled vital spending on healthcare and investment in support of the economy and jobs to be maintained; • Investment returns: special funds saw strong returns on their investments, with the strategic reserve increasing by £44 million to £787 million, and the Social Security reserve fund by £95 million to £1.25bn; • Public bond: a £250 million public bond was issued in 2014 to fund vital investment in social and affordable housing – largely through Andium Homes. To support this, Jersey was accredited with an international credit rating of AA+ with a stable outlook and this has been maintained into 2015; • An operating deficit of £25 million was recorded as States departmental these challenges, we still have a strong spending exceeded States’ General balance sheet and options to address Revenues Income. future funding pressures. But we must make Treasury and Resources Minister Senator the changes necessary to the public sector Alan Maclean said: “Like many other structure and the way we manage our governments, our revenue expectations finances if we are to ensure that this were lower than forecast in 2014. Despite continues to be the case.” n

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New bulletin board for Jersey’s tech community

roject Link is a new online tool, a digital bulletin board, where Digital Jersey’s tech partners and community members can post adverts for volunteer roles and paid projects, as well as volunteer their own skills for upcoming projects. The tool has been designed as a direct response to the needs of members, by putting a structured and automated process in place to help deal with their enquiries and business needs. In addition to providing assistance to start-ups looking for talent and funding to start their projects, it will allow members to connect, collaborate and network more easily. Members are also able to submit entries if they’re looking for funding for a particular project, and students are able to submit entries if they are looking for internships in Jersey. A key feature of Project Link is that it will be visible to members of the wider community who visit the Digital Jersey website – not just Digital Jersey members. The aim of Project Link is to encourage engagement within the digital community and to support and nurture local talent by providing a gateway into the industry and offering the opportunity to gain experience and relevant skills. Project Link can be found at www.digital.je/project-link n

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MAGAZINE

BL is published six times a year by Chameleon Group +44 1534 615886 www.blglobal.co.uk

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INSIDE

BL Guernsey

BL guernsey

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77 bl Jersey Facts and figures, launches, business news and more from Jersey

69 the tech gender gap

The Agenda

Men undeniably dominate the tech industry, and attempts to get more women involved are failing. But why?

It’s ecofriendliness all the way in this issue as The Agenda goes green

contributors

The BL Global Discussion Forum

DR LIZ ALEXANDER

Follow us @blglobalnews Office: Floor One, Liberation Station, Esplanade, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3AS © Chameleon Group Limited, all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Views expressed by our contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of Chameleon Group. While every effort is made to achieve total accuracy, Chameleon Group cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions.

With everyone writing articles, churning out blogs and getting active on social media, we’re drowning in ‘content’. Liz looks at how a lot of content fails to connect with customers – and shows how to get it right.

DAVID BURROWS

It’s a brave man who explains how hedge funds might be affected by BEPS, as well as how having a Channel Island office demonstrates ‘substance’ – thank goodness David is that brave man…

BEN JORDAN

In his first piece for BL magazine, Ben dives into the world of social media and tries to make sense of the ‘commandments’ that have been handed down by the FCA for finance firms using social media.

DAVE WALLER

BL regular Dave takes a look at the gap between start-ups and growth businesses and why some firms find it hard to make the transition, before examining what new-fangled biometrics are around the ID corner.

www.blglobal.co.uk july/august 2015 7

in the NEWS Follow us @blglobalnews

First speakers confirmed for Channel Islands Funds Forum 2015 REPRESENTATIVES OF THE

Channel Islands Securities Exchange, the Financial Services Commissions from both Jersey and Guernsey, and the islands’ leading funds and law firms are among the speakers who have confirmed for this year’s Channel Islands Funds Forum: ‘Stepping into the Light’. The conference takes place from 9am to 3pm on Thursday 1 October at the Radisson Blu Waterfront in St Helier, and will bring together senior speakers and delegates from Jersey, Guernsey, the City and Europe to discuss issues, opportunities and challenges in the funds industry both right now and in the future. Among the speakers confirmed at this stage are: • Tom Amy, Director, Elian, Guernsey • Emma Bailey, Director of Investment Supervision and Policy Division, Guernsey Financial Services Commission • Lisa Cawley, Partner, Kirkland and Ellis, London • Richard Corrigan, Deputy CEO, Jersey Finance • David Crosland, Partner, Carey Olsen, Guernsey • John Harris, Director-General, Jersey Financial Services Commission (pictured) • Fiona Le Poidevin, CEO, Channel Islands Securities Exchange • Adam Moorshead, Head of Fund Administration, Kleinwort Benson, Guernsey • Stuart Pinnington, Group Head of Institutional Services, JTC Group, Jersey • Mark Rawlins, Partner, Collas Crill, Jersey • Ben Robins, Partner, Mourant Ozannes, and Chair of the Jersey Funds Association • Nick Vermeulen, Partner, PwC, Guernsey • Andrew Weaver, Partner, Appleby, Jersey • Dominic Wheatley, Chief Executive, Guernsey Finance The Channel Islands Funds Forum is organised by BL Events in partnership with PwC, and is sponsored by Appleby and Ashburton and supported by Rossborough and Puritas. For a full list of speakers, topics to be covered during the day, and to book your place, visit www.blglobal.co.uk/events n

Guernsey placed on EU tax ‘black list’ GUERNSEY HAS BEEN placed on an EU

tax ‘black list’, which classes the island as a ‘non-cooperative tax jurisdiction’. The list consolidates national tax ‘black lists’ as they stood six months ago, and features 30 jurisdictions that are found on 10 or more Member States’ lists. But while Guernsey itself is only on nine it has been included on the EU list because Sark – for which it has no legal responsibility in tax matters – appears on another ‘black list’. Guernsey’s Chief Minister, Jonathan Le Tocq, and Commerce and Employment Minister Kevin Stewart have condemned the report, published in mid-May, for using “outdated information” and mistakenly tying Guernsey with Sark. “The Commission appears to have hurriedly put together a list of so-called ‘non-cooperative’ non-EU jurisdictions using some very arbitrary criteria,” said Le Tocq. “It is this type of arbitrary and inconsistent use of ‘black lists’ that international standards are supposed to be replacing, so this seems to me to run counter to what the Commission itself is trying to do on tax transparency… Our priority is to be removed from this list.” n

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Elian launches New York office

ELIAN, THE GLOBAL provider of Corporate Services, Fund Services, Private Wealth and Capital Services, has extended its international reach with the opening of an office in New York. The New York office will support Elian’s fast-growing and comprehensive range of corporate services, including corporate structuring, structured finance and asset finance. It will also support Elian’s broad range of administration services to private equity, real estate and hedge fund managers. The new office will be led by Managing Director John Wallace, who has more than 25 years’ international financial markets experience, and has held a number of senior positions in New York, London and Tokyo with Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust. n

JTC gains UCIS authorisation INDEPENDENT CORPORATE, FUND and private client services provider

JTC has been granted an extension to its licence in the UK. The amendment to JTC’s permissions by the Financial Conduct Authority means the company is now authorised to act as an operator of unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS) in the UK. As well as enabling JTC to establish, operate and wind up such schemes, the authorisation means it can also take on various oversight responsibilities, including ensuring schemes comply with all regulatory requirements and that appropriate information is provided to investors. It also allows JTC to assist in promoting funds and assume responsibilities for managing the property and assets held within the schemes. n

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Airtel and JT discuss merger FOLLOWING A STATEMENT from the

Minister for Treasury & Resources, Senator Alan Maclean, in the States of Jersey on 23 June 2015, Airtel and JT have confirmed that they’re in initial talks to merge their operations across Jersey and Guernsey. In his ministerial statement, Senator Maclean stated: “I can confirm that an unsolicited written offer has been received… from the ultimate owner of the Airtel business in the Channel Islands, Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal. “The offer sets out a proposal to: a) merge JT and Airtel in Jersey and Guernsey in return for a percentage ownership in the combined business; and b) to purchase an additional holding in the merged entity. This would mean the States retaining just under 75 per cent of the shares. The strategic minority interest would amount to 25 per cent plus one share of the merged business. “I recently met Mr Mittal at his request and I am satisfied that his offer is intended to develop and grow the JT business and build on his long-term commitment to Jersey. “Having considered the offer, the Board of JT has confirmed that it views the offer as worthy of very serious consideration.” Should agreement be reached following discussions between the two companies, a merger would require the approval of CICRA and the companies’ shareholders. In the case of JT, this would require the explicit approval of the States of Jersey. In a joint press release, the companies said: “The merged entity would offer significant benefits to consumers, employees, the local economies and shareholders, including: • The integration of networks, maximising network coverage and speeds while reducing the proliferation of the sites across the islands; • Taking the best of the customer care currently offered; • Ensuring a focus on innovation, with a significant benefit to local efforts to drive economic development in the digital and fintech industries.” The press release went on to state that: “Due to the confidential nature of the discussions, neither party will be making any further comment at this point, with further announcements to follow in due course.” n

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News

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Vistra Group, a provider of company formations, trust, corporate and fund administration services, has agreed to sell a majority stake in the firm to Baring Private Equity Asia. The Vistra Group management team will continue to hold a significant shareholding in the company after completion of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals. The parties have agreed not to disclose the financial terms of the transaction. Baring Asia is one of the largest and most established independent private equity firms in Asia and advises funds that manage more than $9bn in committed capital. The firm runs a pan-Asian investment programme, sponsoring management buyouts and providing growth capital to companies for expansion or acquisitions. Barclays Wealth & Investment is to sell its offshore trust and fiduciary business to an independent investor group. Barclays’ offshore trust business is based in Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, the Cayman Islands, Singapore and Switzerland. The bank has not identified the purchasing group, but it is led by two families that have significant experience in building and operating financial services in the trust, financial planning and advisory sectors. Likewise, the value of the deal was not disclosed. Barclays will hold a minority stake in the business once the transaction receives regulatory approval, and will also continue to provide trust services from its onshore locations. International trust and corporate services provider Equiom Group has successfully completed the acquisition of Lloyds Trust Company (Channel Islands) and its subsidiaries. This follows the acquisition of Ardel Trust Company (Guernsey) in February this year, and further increases the size of Equiom’s Channel Islands’ footprint, with all 43 Lloyds staff joining Equiom. The Lloyds Trust Company name will not be retained, and all staff have relocated to Equiom’s offices in St Helier and St Peter Port. n

Brooks Macdonald granted South Africa licence BROOKS MACDONALD

CORRECTION: MATT GORMAN In the last issue of BL Magazine (May/June 2015), in our article ‘What if your bank was more like Google?’, we mistakenly named the COO of Standard Bank as Matt Osman, when it is, in fact, Matt Gorman. BL Magazine is happy to correct this error and apologises for any inconvenience caused.

International (BMI) has been granted a Category 1 licence to provide advisory and intermediary services in South Africa by the Financial Services Board (FSB). The licence means BMI can offer its discretionary investment management, security and dealing services to South African investors from its Channel Islands base. South African investors will be able to access BMI’s full range of investment services through their professional adviser. Darren Zaman, Chief Executive Officer of Brooks Macdonald International, commented: “The granting of the licence is an important step for BMI as we continue to develop our business internationally.” n

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News

Channel Islands PR Forum launched The trends shaping the future communications landscape globally will form the focus of debate at the inaugural CIPR PR Forum to be held in the Channel Islands later this year. Organised by the Channel Islands Group of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the half day conference, entitled ‘Future Reputations’, will feature a line-up of visiting experts across the digital, international and academic PR space. The event will feature a keynote speech from current CIPR President Sarah Pinch, and include a session on dealing with the complexities of engaging in international PR campaigns led by Eva Maclaine, Principal of Maclaine Communications, and consultant, researcher and lecturer Dr Barbara Gibson. A panel session featuring Stuart Bruce, Principal of Stuart Bruce Associates; Steve Dunne, CEO of Digital Drums; and Andrew Bruce Smith, Managing Director of Escherman, will debate the challenges and opportunities in a rapidly evolving digital communications environment and the impact of technological innovation – including the ethical issues thrown up by wearable technology. It will also include a session led by Dr Jon White, Visiting Professor at Henley Business School and Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, looking at the ‘Tomorrow’s Company’ project and the role of public relations in the modern corporate landscape. The conference, for which BL Global is media partner, takes place at the i2 offices in St Peter Port, Guernsey from 12.30pm to 5pm on 24 September. For more information about prices and to book a place, contact Adam Riddell, Chair of the CIPR Channel Islands Group, at adam@crystalpr.co.uk n

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Done Deals OGIER has acted as Jersey counsel to a consortium of 60 lenders in relation to Glencore’s $15.25bn revolving credit facilities. The deal involved the refinancing of Glencore’s existing revolving credit facilities entered into in June 2014, comprising of a new $8.45bn revolving credit facilities agreement and an amendment to an existing facility, expanding it to $6.8bn. Offshore law firm Carey Olsen has advised Apax Global Alpha (AGA) on its listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The transaction involved the acquisition by AGA of over €600 million in existing investments and the raising of €300 million in capital for new investments. AGA is managed by Guernsey-licensed manager Apax Guernsey Managers and advised by Apax Partners LLP. It will invest in private equity funds advised by the latter and other derived investments. The firm has also advised Waterland Private Equity Investments on its Waterland Private Equity VI, which closed following a successful fundraising of €1.55bn after just three months in the market. €1.25bn sits within the fund (a Guernsey vehicle that invests into the Dutch fund), with the remaining €300 million in an overflow fund – also a Guernsey vehicle. The fund is administrated by Private Equity Administrators in Guernsey. Elian has successfully supported Garuda Indonesia on achieving its $500 million Sukuk, the first ever offshore US-dollar offering by an Indonesian corporate issuer. It’s anticipated that the funds raised will be used by Garuda Indonesia to refinance its debt as well as for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditure. Elian was appointed to provide directors and corporate

administration services to the newly incorporated Cayman trustee as issuer of the trust certificates that will be listed on the Singapore Exchange. Elian Fund Services (Guernsey) has also successfully assisted iCON Infrastructure Partners LLP in achieving a first and final closing of its third fund, iCON Infrastructure III (iCON III), a Guernsey-registered closed-ended investment scheme with approximately €800 million in commitments. Elian established the structure and acted as designated manager for the licensing process. iCON III has also appointed Elian Fund Services (UK) as depository. Appleby has acted as offshore counsel to Santander in connection with the reorganisation of its private banking division in Jersey, successfully consolidating Santander’s Jersey businesses within the Jersey branch of Santander UK. The transaction used the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991, which allows a Jersey deposittaking business to be transferred from one bank to another by means of a court-sanctioned scheme. Litigation funders Therium Capital Management have announced a £200 million private fundraising to invest in the costs of large-scale commercial litigation, group litigation and arbitration globally. The fundraising is believed to be the largest single investment in litigation funding to date. Bedell Cristin’s Jersey office acted as the Jersey law advisers to Therium, advising on all Jersey corporate and regulatory aspects of the fundraising, including the utilisation of a Jerseyincorporated cell company and its cells, and the creation of Therium Group Holdings, the new Jersey-based parent of Therium. n

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LO C A L LY F O C U S E D . G L O B A L LY C O N N E C T E D .

I N D I V I D U A L LY TA I LO R E D. D E L I V E R I N G A W A R D - W I N N I N G W E A LT H M A N A G E M E N T S O L U T I O N S F R O M HERE IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS FOR OVER 50 YEARS.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT ADAM NORRIS IN JERSEY AT +44 (0) 1534 283496, ADAM.NORRIS@RBC.COM, OR DANIEL BISSON IN GUERNSEY AT +44 (0) 1481 744395, DANIEL.BISSON@RBC.COM, OR VISIT

RBCWEALTHMANAGEMENT.COM

There’s Wealth in Our Approach.TM

The value of investments may fall as well as rise. You may not get back the full amount that you originally invested. This advertisement is issued by Royal Bank of Canada (Channel Islands) Limited (“the Bank”) on behalf of RBC® companies that comprise RBC Wealth Management in the British Isles The Bank is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission in the conduct of deposit taking and investment business and to act as a custodian/trustee of collective investment schemes in Guernsey and is also regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission in the conduct of deposit taking, fund services and investment business in Jersey. The Bank’s General Terms and Conditions are updated from time to time and can be found at www.rbcwminternational.com/terms-and-conditions-British-Isles.html. Registered Office: Canada Court, St Peter Port, Guernsey, Channel Islands, GY1 3BQ, registered company number 3295. Deposits made with the offices of the Bank in Guernsey and Jersey are not covered by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme; however, the Bank is a participant in the respective Deposit Compensation Schemes in Jersey and Guernsey (“the CI Schemes”). Links to the official websites which provide details of the respective CI Schemes are available on the Jersey and Guernsey pages of our website Copies of the latest audited accounts are available upon request from either the registered office or the Jersey Branch: 19-21 Broad St, St. Helier, Jersey JE1 8PB. ® / TM Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under licence

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Appointments

Barclays has appointed Simon Smith as Head of Corporate Investments Distribution in Jersey. Simon is responsible for Barclays’ investment management and brokerage services across Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man client base. He joins as part of the wider corporate specialist solutions team which covers cash, liquidity management and investment distribution across the UK, Gibraltar, Cyprus and the Channel Islands. Simon has worked at Barclays since 2012 as a Senior Manager with responsibility for treasury and brokerage solutions for the bank’s Jersey clients.

First Names Group has appointed Pete Emery as Group Chief Operating Officer. Pete, who will be based in the Group’s London office, will focus on developing a global operational platform to enable First Names Group to achieve its vision for continued growth, and oversee group functions – namely change, HR, technology services, treasury, facilities and management information. Prior to joining the Group, Pete forged a successful career with Barclays, where he was Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the UK Private Bank until his departure in 2014.

Aztec Group has appointed Geraldine O’Rourke as a Director to lead the Group’s corporate services offering from its Jersey office. Geraldine has over 30 years’ experience in the finance industry, and has gained substantial experience as a trustee and director, leading teams administrating offshore structures for corporate clients, including employee benefit plans, funds and special purpose vehicles as well as UHNWIs. In a previous role at Abacus Financial Services Group, Geraldine set up the Corporate Service Division, growing it from inception to more than 100 employees in under 10 years.

Asset Leverage Consultants (ALC) has appointed Adrian Rowland as a Director. In his new role, Adrian will have specific responsibility for liaising with and assisting ALC’s expanding network of trust companies and introducers. He has over 30 years’ experience in the local finance industry and previously held a variety of senior positions, including Group Head of Credit Services and Group Head of Risk at SG Hambros Group. Founded in 2013, ALC is a privately owned business providing consultancy services covering all aspects of credit and debt structuring across the full spectrum of asset classes.

Hatstone Lawyers has appointed Advocate Mike Preston as a Group Partner, where he will join the litigation and dispute resolution team. Mike is a highly experienced and well-respected trial lawyer specialising in trust and commercial dispute resolution, and he has worked on several of the major criminal trials of recent years. He qualified as an English Solicitor in 1991 before returning to Jersey in 1993, and was sworn in as an Advocate of the Royal Court in 1999, becoming a Partner at Voisin a year later. Mike is a member of the Advocates and Solicitors Examination Board and a Deputy Chair of the Jersey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal.

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PERFECT MATCH! Elian has appointed David Lambotte as Director at its Cayman Islands office. David, who has over 12 years’ trustee experience, will have responsibility for Elian Private Wealth’s operations in the Caribbean, overseeing business development, relationship management and fiduciary services in the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands. He brings strong expertise in wealth and estate planning services to the role, with proven experience as a trusted advisor to UHNW families across the Americas, Middle East, Asia and the UK. Jersey-born David joins Elian from RBC Wealth Management.

Will Thorp has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Standard Bank Jersey. Will’s key responsibilities include the overall development and delivery of Standard Bank’s strategy in Jersey. His appointment follows a 14-year career at Standard Bank. During the last decade, he has held a number of roles there including Finance Director of the bank’s Russian operation based in Moscow; Global Finance Director, Investment Banking, based in both London and Johannesburg; and most recently Chief Financial Officer for the bank’s Offshore Group, based in Jersey.

International trust and corporate services provider Equiom has announced the appointment of Tobi Mathews as an exclusive in-house Consultant to its yachting and aviation teams. Based at Equiom’s Jersey office, Tobi will work with the teams there to provide support across all aspects of the company’s services to their worldwide client base. Tobi has over 25 years’ experience as a lawyer, with specialist knowledge and expertise in structuring and management in many fields, including aviation, shipping, intellectual property matters, private equity and hedge funds.

Law firm Mourant Ozannes has appointed Advocate Georgina Cook to its property team as Counsel. With nearly 15 years’ experience, Georgina is a specialist in Jersey property law, including commercial and residential sales and acquisitions, and commercial leasehold matters, with particular expertise in structuring multiple unit commercial and residential developments. Prior to joining Mourant Ozannes, she was a Partner at Appleby and then at Bois Bois, both in Jersey. Georgina qualified as an English Solicitor in 2000 and as a Jersey Advocate in 2002.

Coutts & Co Trustees (Jersey) has appointed Lord William Waldegrave as Chairman of the Board and Non-executive Director. Lord Waldegrave of North Hill has had a long and distinguished career in politics, which included cabinet posts between 1990 and 1997 as Secretary of State for Health, Secretary of State for Agriculture, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He entered the House of Lords in 1999, and from 2000 to 2003 was President of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. He has since served as Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank and as Chairman of the Global Financial Institutions Group at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

The BL JOBS BOARD brings together top employers and star talent Looking to take your next step up the ladder? Get online and start searching now – it’s completely free!

Want to attract your next big hire? Post your latest position and connect with your next big name To get involved contact Carl Methven +44 (0) 1534 615886 +44 (0) 7797 796377 carl.methven@blglobal.co.uk

july/august 2015 15

In partnership with:

A BL event channel islands funds forum 2015

stepping into the light

thursday 1 october RADISSON BLU WATERFRONT HOTEL, Jersey 9am-3pm delegate rates from £320 five hours cpd available The agenda for the day includes a variety of panel discussions, presentations and breakout sessions covering the following: • What’s in store for the islands’ funds industries in the coming year? • The opportunities offered by infrastructure and natural resources • Is technology disrupting the funds industry? • Can the islands make a mark in African private equity? • Fund administration – what do board members need to know? • A review of the funds legal landscape • Are investor demands leading to a decline in the blind pool? • Current trends and issues in fund liquidation and restructuring • Guernsey vs Jersey – is there really much difference? For more information and to book your place, visit www.blglobal.co.uk/events or email events@blglobal.co.uk Sponsored by:

Supported by:

The Interview 18 july/august 2015

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Interview

With over 35 years in media in the Channel Islands and a subsequent string of high-profile directorships, John Henwood is one of the most recognisable, respected and outspoken names in Jersey. Here he lays out his manifesto for change if the island he loves is to continue to prosper

Interview: Nick Kirby Pictures: Glen Perotte

TELL US ABOUT your work background and what you’re doing now? I spent most of my early work life at Channel Television – over 35 years in fact. I went from being a trainee to cameraman to director and producer, and then I switched horses and became head of news and features, learned the craft of the journalist, and worked my way through the business, really enjoying the opportunity to have a go at virtually everything. Ultimately I was Chief Executive of the Channel Television group of companies, and the jewel in that crown was the ITV franchise for the Channel Islands. In June 2000 we sold Channel Television, and, having spent six months tidying up the remaining businesses in the group, I stood down at the end of the year without a job to go to. I was going to retire, but I set up a consultancy business just in case anyone thought I may have something useful to offer. Around that time, an old school friend who was then running the IoD in Jersey was going through a period of ill health and asked if I’d complete his term of office. I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to refuse, so somewhat to my surprise I found myself in the job of Chairman of the IoD in Jersey, which I did for the next two years. In 2002, I was particularly pleased and excited to be asked to form a board to take Jersey Telecom, as they were then called, through the process of incorporation. I was there for about six years. Coming up to date, I’m Chairman of two significant local entities – Visit Jersey,

which is charged with revitalising the tourism industry, and G4S Secure Services Jersey. I’m a Director of Guernsey company Bailiwick Investments and of LFH International, a private conglomerate. I also still run my own company, Byerley. Any career highlights or something you’re particularly proud of? I suppose there are a couple of things. In 1990, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher described the television industry as ‘the last bastion of restrictive practices’ and decided that ITV franchises should be sold to the highest bidder. The smaller franchises were vulnerable to bidders who might overvalue those businesses. I felt some sense of achievement winning the Channel Islands franchise with a very small, almost peppercorn, bid – the opposition bid 50 times more but were ruled out because their plan was deemed unsustainable. The important thing was it meant continued employment for staff and we were able to maintain the high-quality local service we’d worked so hard to develop. Another thing was being asked to take Jersey Telecom through incorporation as I mentioned before. Jersey Telecom was the first government department to be incorporated and it was a huge challenge, but I put a board together and we built a strong and increasingly profitable company. We also, for the first time, successfully took competition in telecoms to Guernsey with a start-up business over there. In 1998 I was made MBE. The honours process is as mysterious as it is secretive, but the Lieutenant Governor at that time, Sir Michael Wilkes, was kind enough to tell me it was for services to broadcasting and the community. I’ve been trying to justify the award ever since. Anything that didn’t quite go to plan? When I left Channel Television, I had a reasonable profile and everyone knew

I had stood down. So around that time the phone would ring and typically the caller would say: “I see you’ve got nothing to do these days so why don’t you help me with this or that.” Worried about being bored, I did say yes to rather too many things I should have said no to. I don’t like looking backwards and it’s been my philosophy that you do your best and you move on. To this day, this is the first time I’ve publicly commented on my time in ITV or with Jersey Telecom. But to illustrate the point of lowlights rather than highlights, around 2001 I was asked to do an honorary job in my parish, and I felt it was my duty to do it. I was required to go to the Royal Court and swear an oath that I would do this job to the best of my ability for three years. Unfortunately I found that the job was, frankly, boring – but I’d committed to it and I spent three years doing the best I could while wishing I’d never taken it on. As far as Jersey Telecom is concerned, I do have one regret. Once we’d gone through incorporation and reshaped the business, it was the board’s clear view that the company should be sold. And the Treasury Minister of the day – who was the sole shareholder – agreed. However, when he became Chief Minister his successor at the Treasury backed off the idea of selling because, in my view, he saw it as politically too difficult. At that time, we knew the business was valued at between £175 million and £200 million and I will always believe Jersey Telecom should have been sold then – it was a missed opportunity. In the 35 years you were at Channel Television you had a unique perspective of the islands. How have you seen them develop? In my lifetime, the single biggest change has been the growth, literally from a standing start, of the finance industry. It’s the finance industry that has delivered huge benefits to both bailiwicks. But it has also brought

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John Henwood www.blglobal.co.uk july/august 2015 19

problems. The huge success of finance led to profligacy, and as far as Jersey is concerned – and, to a lesser extent, Guernsey – we’re suffering the effects of that profligacy now. There was a time that when there was a major proposal before the States, a large part of the thinking that went into any decision was: ‘How will the finance industry react to this? Because we mustn’t do anything that upsets it’. There are a number of reasons that seeds of the decline in agriculture and tourism were sown, but principal among those is the notion that we didn’t have to worry about diversity in the economy. It’s easy with hindsight to see that was a desperately short-term view, but when the most senior politician is getting up in the States and saying ‘we’ve got money coming out of our ears’, you think you’ve got the crock of gold and it’s never going to empty. So we took our eye off the ball of other industries. For example, investment in tourism dwindled. Today, the amount that the States of Jersey puts directly into tourism is less than half what it was in the mid1990s in real terms. Staying on tourism – figures seem to have stabilised recently, but is the industry in both islands in a terminal decline? First of all, I’m not prepared to say that the decline has been halted. There have been too many false dawns in the past. Every year at around this time you hear: ‘Oh the numbers are up, it’s looking good, we’re set for a good season’. And then it comes to the end of the year and it hasn’t been very good. So I’m not prepared to say we’re out of the woods. However, what I will say is that the opportunity is huge. What we have to offer as a destination is exciting, and there’s no good reason why Jersey shouldn’t enjoy tourism growth in line with what the UK is experiencing and trends in world growth, which is somewhere between three and four per cent a year. Visit Jersey has appointed a very experienced tourism professional in Keith Beecham. And we’ve nailed our colours to the mast in saying that we will have a million visitors a year by 2030. There are, however, sharp differences between Jersey and Guernsey. Jersey has excellent routes into the island, and it’s a false perception that it’s expensive to get here. Guernsey on the other hand has a much bigger problem – with only a single air operator into Gatwick and, by Jersey standards, a very high cost of access. Nevertheless Guernsey is investing new money in tourism and

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trying a new marketing approach, and we in Jersey should not dismiss them as weak competitors. You’ve been outspoken about the need for ‘Brand Jersey’ – can you explain that to us? Whatever we do in the Channel Islands – and I know the Jersey situation better than Guernsey, so I’ll emphasise that if I may. Whatever we do – whether it’s tourism, agriculture, finance, new technology – I’m absolutely convinced that we need to present a unified front, rather than having seven or eight separate areas

Jersey’s tiny – we’re a speck – but we have to play on the world stage, and we should play with a single strong card instead of several weaker ones

of activity paddling their own individual canoes. Jersey, in world terms, is tiny, and should present itself from a single platform. That’s to say in marketing terms, that we should have a Jersey ‘brand’ from which all the key earners could operate. That’s not to say that finance and tourism should take the same message to world markets, but they should take their messages from a single agreed and recognised image of the island. We’re tiny, we’re a speck, but we have to play on the world stage, and we should play with a single strong card instead of several weaker ones. Is the problem that Jersey has too many ‘agencies’ – Jersey Finance, Locate Jersey, Digital Jersey, Visit Jersey and so on? Are you saying these key stakeholders should exist separately but work together? That’s absolutely right. Let’s take tourism and finance because they’re the easiest

example. The proposition of Jersey Finance is different from the proposition of Visit Jersey, but operating from a common platform would give one the advantages of the other. That doesn’t mean that Jersey Finance has to give up its logo and consult with Visit Jersey before it does anything, it just means that Jersey sells itself in all its manifestations from a single agreed platform of ‘this is Jersey, this is what we’re taking to the world. We’ve got finance, we’ve got tourism, we’ve got relocation opportunities, we’ve got digital opportunities, we sell wonderful produce – all from the same basket’. It screams common sense to me, but I’m afraid there’s still a silo mentality in government, and they find it difficult to sign up to the idea of a single voice. Guernsey has always had its own way of doing things – they don’t copy ‘big brother’ and very often they get it more right than Jersey. If the islands are mere specks, does that make it more important to find areas to work together? Is it a natural extension of your brand thinking that there should be a Channel Island brand? I think two small units playing on an enormous stage should consider how working together, where appropriate, will benefit both to a greater degree than working individually. We must remember that we’re competitors in some fields, but so what? It’s not hard surely to separate those areas in which we can benefit from working together from those in which we must say, respectfully, we’re competing with you on this, and go our separate ways. It’s not difficult – but there seems to be a mental block about this. You either cooperate or you don’t. Digital is being trumpeted as the new growth sector of the economy, with Jersey being about five years ahead of Guernsey by general consensus. What is your take on the potential for digital? I fervently hope that the huge investment being made in what was initially called ‘Gigabit Jersey’ will prove to be a smart investment, but I’ve always taken the view that it was a high-risk bid. You talk about Guernsey being behind Jersey, but Jersey was also late into the game. I think what we haven’t done yet is come up with one or two unique reasons why Jersey is a better option – and I don’t think we’ve discovered what those killer applications are yet. I know there’s no shortage of effort going in via Digital Jersey. I have

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Interview

considerable regard for the people who are working there and I wish them every success – we need them to win. But I think it’s going to be a while before we know what the benefits are going to be. There are other challenges that are going to put pressure on the islands’ economies – most notably an ageing population and the islands’ attitudes to population control. Is population a sticking point when it comes to the islands’ future development? I think both are very significant issues. There’s nothing we can do about the fact that people are living longer. As far as population control is concerned, I’m afraid there’s a mentality in which people really believe that we can simply pull up the drawbridge, bolt the door and not let any more people in. But how do you reconcile people living longer, being in care and being sicker for longer, with not allowing more people in to stimulate the economy and pay for that ageing population? It’s a massive non sequitur. I think people in Jersey really must get their heads out of the sand and accept that we need to grow our population with young people who are economically active to meet the cost of the future. But I see one other threat that’s far greater – I think we are still, to a large extent, too complacent. Even though in Jersey we are looking at a £125 million black hole, some of our senior politicians appear to be in denial. We have one former minister who keeps telling us how much better off we are than a lot of other places. Of course we are, but how does that knowledge help us? The right measure is how we are doing in absolute terms, and the answer is we’re not doing very well. Jersey’s GVA is on a long-term downward trend. If we go in the same direction for much longer we won’t be able to afford the key front-line services – let alone all the nice-to-haves we’ve become used to. The luxuries have to go and we need something much closer – dare I say it? – to austerity than many locals have experienced in their lifetimes. To finish off, there are big opportunities out there, but what needs to be done to deal with this complacency? Will it be down to business will, political will or community will? All of the above. I think there’s a common tendency to blame government for everything, and I think during the times of plenty, when we thought the finance industry would solve everything forever,

FACT FILE

we got used to a handout culture and we lost the enterprise ethos. We have a bloated government that allowed itself to believe that the money was simply going to go on pouring in forever, so it just grew and grew – and frankly we can’t afford the size of government we have now. Government needs to take a lead and start reducing its size – and yes, I’m talking about laying off a lot of public sector employees. This will set a trend. It will show that we’re no longer prepared to go on mortgaging the future, but it will have some economic benefits too, in that if you downsize government, you’re going to release a lot of human resource into the labour pool, which private enterprise can pick up. That’s my little vision of the future, and having said that, I know it’s not easy. My question is: ‘Is there a will in Jersey to do everything that is necessary?’ I have no doubt that our Chief Minister and at least some of his colleagues are seized of the issues and that they are resolute about solving some of these problems. Whether they’re in sufficient number and suitably determined to carry the day is not yet clear. But I hope so, because nothing less than Jersey’s future depends on it. n

Name: John Henwood Age: Old enough to know better! Position: Chairman of Visit Jersey and Chairman of G4S Secure Services Jersey Partner: Moya Fenoughty Hobbies: Thoroughbred and horse racing, journalism, writing and current affairs Interesting fact: “I’ve been a Queens Park Rangers supporter since my grandfather lifted me over the turnstile at Loftus Road as a child – and it hasn’t been a good year! I played all sports and wasn’t much good at any, but did win a silver medal as a schoolboy boxer.”

NICK KIRBY is Editor-in-Chief of BL Magazine

www.blglobal.co.uk july/august 2015 21

Finance

WE HAVE EXPERTS IN YOUR AREA, IN YOUR AREA. With unrivalled local knowledge and experience, no-one understands the needs of the local market like we do. To speak to our Channel Islands team, call (01534) 282076.

The Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited trades in Jersey and Guernsey as Coutts & Co Channel Islands and as Coutts. The Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited. Registered Office: P.O. Box 64, Royal Bank House, 71 Bath Street, St. Helier, Jersey JE4 8PJ. Business address: 23-25 Broad Street, St. Helier, Jersey JE4 8ND. Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Guernsey business address: P.O. Box 62, Royal Bank Place, 1 Glategny Esplanade, St. Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 4BQ. Regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission and licensed under the Insurance Managers and Insurance Intermediaries (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2002 and the Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1987, as amended. Calls may be recorded.

22 july/august 2015

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Finance

For years, the eyes of the world’s investors have been fixed on eastern emerging markets while Africa has gone largely unconsidered. Now it seems everyone has woken up to what the continent has to offer

Africa the land of plenty? Words: Kirsten Morel

be characterised as the ‘emerging markets decade’. BRICS, CIVETS and EAGLES were the acronyms on everyone’s lips as a mix of mass urbanisation, greater market freedoms and rapidly growing consumer markets pushed countries that had stagnated for years to the top of every investor’s list. Across continents, the likes of Brazil, Colombia, China, Mexico, Vietnam and Russia were being bundled together as regions of enormous growth potential and hailed as the world’s economic future. While the sheer internationalism of emerging markets made it seem as though the whole world was waking up, on closer analysis of those famous acronyms one continent was largely missing – Africa. Perhaps no other region on the planet has had such a tortured relationship with international financial markets. Resource-rich

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THE FIRST 10 years of this millennium could

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but low on good governance and infrastructure as a whole, Africa has long been overlooked as an investment opportunity by all but the most hardened investors. Today, things have changed. Since the global recession began to bite, not only have non-African emerging markets experienced reduced growth rates, making Africa look more attractive in comparison, but mobile technology has unlocked a door to consumer markets across the continent, suddenly exposing one billion more people to the eyes of global investors. The result has been an increase in foreign direct investment (FDI), which, although it fell by 8.4 per cent in 2014, is still above pre-2008 levels according to EY’s 2015 Africa attractiveness survey, which explains that ‘Africa’s share of global capital investment and job creation hit an all-time high in 2014. Africa attracted more FDI funding than North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe, which historically draw significantly higher FDI flows than Africa’. In 2014, capital investment into Africa grew to $128bn and FDI created more than 188,400 new jobs on the continent (68 per cent year-on-year growth), proving that Africa is very much on the investment map.

WHERE OPPORTUNITIES LIE With billions of dollars flowing into the continent, the Channel Islands have moved quickly to identify opportunities in which their financial services industries can become involved. According to Trevor Falle, Group Director at trust and administration firm JTC

The professional view We asked industry experts to give us their view on which African countries could provide real opportunities for the Channel Islands. NIGERIA

One of Africa’s largest countries, Nigeria is set to play a central role in the continent’s growth. It offers tremendous potential, with its GDP now above South Africa’s. The high-networth population is expanding at a tremendous rate and there’s a rising middle class. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, but its growth is also being driven by agriculture, communication technology, trade and services. Our clients there are very sophisticated and demand high-quality international partners to assist them with their wealth management requirements.

Deon de Klerk, Head of Wealth and Investment, Africa and International, Standard Bank

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SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa has maintained its position as a leading African economy, but South Africans are increasingly concerned for the future. Power cuts are a regular feature of daily life, crime is an ever-present risk, local currency is weak, unemployment stubbornly high, and the government associated with one scandal after another. Residents look to independent wealth managers to provide quality investment management from a well-regulated and recognised jurisdiction. South Africa has employed rigid exchange controls for many years, and these have recently been dramatically relaxed. This allows South Africans to meaningfully diversify offshore, and the combination of a worsening domestic outlook, increasing uncertainty around the future and the enhanced ability to externalise assets has fuelled demand for offshore wealth management.

BOTSWANA

Almost every article focused on the finance industry and its role within Africa immediately talks about the Big Three – South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. While it’s hard to deny that these are interesting economies, other less-travelled destinations are often overlooked. Botswana has the continent’s longest continuous multi-party democracy and continues to be ranked as the least corrupt country in Africa by Transparency International. It’s the world’s largest producer of diamonds, and this has been transformational. Botswana is now one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, providing some excellent opportunities for Channel Island firms to bring much needed experience and wealth management expertise into this growing market.

Lindsay Bateman, Business Development Director, Brooks Macdonald International

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Finance

MOZAMBIQUE Mozambique, a country of 26 million people, is blessed with abundant natural resources, including natural gas, coal, aluminium and a beautiful 2,470km coastline. Economic growth has been rapid following the end of civil war 20 years ago, exceeding seven per cent per annum in recent years. Yet, this country doesn’t even have one regionalsized shopping mall (10,000sqm or larger) and many of the growing middle and upper class endure the three-hour journey to South Africa at weekends to shop. International retailers are eager to capitalise on this opportunity and the resulting high rental yields have the potential to generate exciting investment returns.

David Lashbrook, Head of Africa Investment Strategies, Momentum Global Investment Management

TANZANIA

going to be slower than last year because of the oil price. However, it has had a brilliant political transition.” With such a wide range of national and regional economies to choose from, Falle believes it’s crucial Channel Island companies do their homework and identify the areas that offer both growth opportunities and a political and regulatory climate that they can do business with. “JTC’s strategy has been to filter all 54 countries through our process,” he explains. “There are probably a dozen countries you would consider building a strategy around. However, many of these are very small and you keep coming back to the three main hubs of Johannesburg/Cape Town [South Africa], Nairobi [Kenya] and Lagos [Nigeria].” While some African nations have a reputation for political and economic turmoil, Clark sees the risk of access to your investment being closed off as minimal after doing your due diligence. The reality is that some countries are so aware of the need to maintain foreign investment that they have taken active steps to protect it during uncertain times. “In 2008, the Central Bank of Tunisia provided liquidity to ensure that foreign investors could exit their money, so the country would see it come back,” Clark says.

FROM THE GROUND UP In terms of business sectors, Jersey in particular has seen a number of mining companies headquarter themselves in the island using it as a conduit for a London listing – Randgold Resources is a prominent example. It was through the mining sector that Jersey

The discovery of substantial energy reserves has triggered inward investment into Tanzania and this is well evidenced by the construction boom in Dar es Salaam. Unfortunately, like many African countries, and despite its wealth of natural resources, it’s not a rich country. The wealth is held by too few people and corruption is frequently mentioned as one of the principal barriers of doing business in both the public and private sectors. The country has exchange controls that are relatively friendly to inward investors, but they make international diversification difficult for those who live there. Tanzania’s historic ties with China are well documented and this is still apparent today. China exports goods to Tanzania and is often awarded government infrastructure projects. For Channel Island firms, there certainly remains good opportunities for those wishing to help structure and fund inward investment there.

KENYA

Kenya is the power-house economy of east Africa, which is poised to enjoy some strong growth despite shocking recent security fears. In spite of these terrorist activities, Kenya continues to provide stability for the region. The country is enjoying inward investment, which is pushing land prices up and seeing significant construction activity. The government of President Uhuru Kenyatta has devolved powers to the country’s 47 counties. Opinion varies on the perceived success of this devolution, with some suggesting it’s added another level of corruption, and others praising the empowerment of the counties to now make material local changes benefiting the community. This, coupled with the level of established and developing wealth in the country, a lack of exchange control restrictions, and a need to properly structure both outward and inward investment makes Kenya an interesting prospect for the Channel Islands.

Michael Giraud, Director and Head of New Business Development, Trust & Fiduciary, Salamanca Group

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Group, there are three main areas in which the Channel Islands can play a role. “Firstly, there’s private client work, which is primarily trusts looking after assets of African residents. Secondly, there’s the inflow point, which is the structuring of funds and other vehicles for investment into Africa. Thirdly, there’s corporate cross-border activity in which a strong jurisdiction is required.” According to Sailesh Navsaria, Head of Africa at Minerva Trust, it is cross-border finance, whether into or out of the continent, that is the Channel Islands’ natural role. “Jersey’s value for Africa is all about how we facilitate investment going into the region, while at the same time playing to our strengths in offering African businesses a stronger and a more secure base in Jersey, providing them with a gateway into accessing capital and equity markets,” he explains. Countries and regions across the continent naturally have their individual economies operating at different speeds and holding different cards in terms of natural resources and enterprise growth. Any Channel Island companies looking to do business in Africa need to identify where the best opportunities lie and mustn’t fall into the trap of seeing the continent as one homogenous economy. “One of the areas we think will have a lot of growth is Egypt,” says Paul Clark, Africa Equities Specialist at Ashburton Investments in Johannesburg. “We’re expecting a lot of projects to come on stream next year, so we’ve invested in companies that will have exposure to infrastructure spend. East Africa is another region where we’re seeing growth, but in Nigeria the economy is

Finance

became involved in realising Africa’s potential, but the island’s scope has widened since then. “Our interest started in the mining sector,” says Simon Dinning, Partner at Ogier in Jersey. “But now we are seeing interest from a range of sectors, including infrastructure, pharma and hotels.” Ogier and other Channel Island service providers are principally used to create the structures for funds that hold African assets, companies listing in London or undertaking M&A activity. The islands’ level of expertise is crucial to winning business from Africa, which – often out of habit and certainly because of geography and its range of double tax agreements – has a tendency to look towards Mauritius as its international finance centre of choice. “People use Mauritius because of habit, but it has a real box-ticking mentality and a lack of understanding of corporate objectives,” explains Melissa Sturgess, Founder of resources consultancy Palace Trading. Sturgess believes the continent is on the cusp of increased economic activity and sees this as a good opportunity. “There’s going to be increased M&A activity as we come out of this slump,” she says. “Once we see the resources space re-emerge, then there’s no reason why London-listed companies can’t be structured out of Guernsey.” While Mauritius may be in competition with the Channel Islands, it’s also a vital partner in doing business on the continent. “What you’ll typically see is a Jersey entity sitting at the top, and below Jersey but above the African asset, you’ll see a Mauritian vehicle that’s there for the tax structuring,” says Dinning. Regardless of how the Channel Islands position themselves, Mauritius holds certain cards that will mean it’s always a factor when creating structures for Africa. “If you’re doing corporate work, you need a Mauritius presence for its DTAs, and it has a lower cost base for private client work,” says Falle. “You wouldn’t want to work in Africa without Mauritius.”

RISK MANAGEMENT Competitive jurisdiction or not, Mauritius has to figure in the plans of any Channel Island company looking to make the most of African economic growth, but there are other obstacles that make doing business more difficult than in alternative emerging market regions, which tend to have better infrastructure and more stable political environments. Topping the list has to be the regulatory environment. At the end of the day, regardless of where the business that a Channel Island company is working on behalf of or investing in is operating from, it must still operate to the KYC and AML standards that are required by the Channel Islands’ authorities, and this can pose challenges. “In recent years, Africa as a continent has come to represent a source of growth opportunities, but with that comes certain challenges,” says Malin Nilsson, Director, Channel Islands, at Kinetic Partners. “To the introducer, there’s the risk that dubious business can be brought into a first-class reputable jurisdiction. For service providers, there’s a higher risk of bribery, corruption, undisclosed family connections to politically exposed persons and sanctions by global authorities. “Therefore, the need arises for very strong gatekeeping procedures. Firms also need to be cautious

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Any companies looking to do business in Africa need to identify where the best opportunities lie and must not fall into the trap of seeing the continent as one homogenous economy

that they don’t underestimate regulators taking a risk-based approach to supervision, as they will expect enhanced due diligence of such structures.” In terms of global business, it is in fact precisely these risks and the relationship with the UK that makes the Channel Islands so attractive. “You can argue that it’s preferable to use the Channel Islands because they have more rigour,” says Sturgess. “From an IPO perspective, my instinct is that in London there’s respect for the Channel Islands. If you’re a CEO of a listed company, auditors ask you about corruption issues, and therefore you want to know what is happening with your business. Having a strong formal structure behind you is a real strength.” Whether it’s helping private equity firms acquire assets, advising on public listings, structuring funds or investing, Africa offers plenty of opportunities for the Channel Islands – but that doesn’t mean business is a one-way street. According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the continent needs investment rates to accelerate significantly. ‘Over the past two decades the average investment rate in Africa has hovered around 18 per cent, which is well below the 25 per cent [of GDP] threshold, and so it’s not surprising that the continent hasn’t achieved the seven per cent average growth rate required to make significant progress in reducing poverty,’ it said in its 2014 Economic Development in Africa Report. If Jersey and Guernsey are to grow their links with Africa, then, as Navsaria says, their “positioning has to be on the very simple basis of what we can do for Africa as opposed to what Africa can do for us”. The reality is that if the islands continue to increase their involvement in facilitating investment into Africa, then they will not only be growing their own economies, but will also be helping to reduce poverty across the continent. n KIRSTEN MOREL is a freelance business writer

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Ben Morgan, Partner, Carey Olsen, Guernsey

WHAT IS IT? The EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers’ Directive (AIFMD) introduced an authorisation and supervisory regime for those marketing and managing funds in the EU. It captures EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs), non-EU AIFMs managing EU funds, and non-EU AIFMs who market funds in the EU. The Directive will have no bearing on the operation of the manager’s business or the fund it manages if marketing and management is conducted outside the EU in respect of a non-EU fund.

WHEN WAS IT INTRODUCED? It’s been in force since 21 July 2011.

WHAT ARE THE RULES? The Directive regulates the managers of collective investment schemes and inevitably affects the funds themselves. As such, the level of compliance required depends on a variety of factors, including

the domicile of both the fund manager and the fund and the size of the assets under management of the relevant manager, as well as any specific requirements of jurisdictions where marketing of the fund(s) is proposed.

WHERE ARE WE NOW? For now the private placement regimes, in respect of the routes to market, in each EU jurisdiction are permitted to coexist alongside the marketing and management passport regime. However, some member states, including Denmark and Germany, have adapted their private placement regimes so that certain requirements of an EU AIFM are also required of a non-EU AIFM. These include the duty to appoint one or more entities to carry out the depositary functions of cash monitoring, governance oversight, safe custody and asset verification. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is expected to deliver an opinion to the EU Parliament, Council and Commission by 22 July 2015, and to issue advice to those institutions on the potential extension of the passporting regime to the management and/or marketing of funds by

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Financial Institutions are arguably subject to more regulation now than ever before. So we gathered together five experts to make sense of the most important recent directives and standards

non-EU AIFMs and to the marketing of non-EU funds by EU AIFMs.

HOW ARE THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AFFECTED? The reputation and size of some private equity hedge fund managers means they’ll attract European investors without needing to actively market in the EU – and therefore avoid being subject to AIFMD under reverse solicitation arrangements. However, any Channel Island fund seeking to attract capital should identify its AIFM (the entity responsible for portfolio and/or risk management) to understand the impact of the AIFM’s domicile on its business. If the AIFM is a large EU business, a fund might find its marketing materials and service provider appointments shaped significantly by AIFMD to accommodate the depositary requirements, valuation procedures, leverage restrictions and so on. In contrast, a large Channel Island (or non-EU) AIFM will only need to comply with the disclosure and transparency standards established under the AIFMD in the context of the presentation of the fund’s annual report and the content of any prospectus – these are not regarded as unduly onerous. While the impact of AIFMD is being felt globally, some jurisdictions and fund managers are better positioned than others to ensure they’re ready to benefit from the opportunities available while avoiding the pitfalls that more regulation usually brings. The Channel Islands have already addressed the Directive and are seen as jurisdictions of choice for European funds. Our regulators are also ready for the possible passport extension, having adopted optional AIFMD equivalent rules for managers seeking to attract EU capital. Furthermore, there are a growing number of non-financial asset depositaries looking to service AIFMD structures. The islands are well positioned to host structures that may need to adapt to regulatory changes in anticipation of the extension of the passport to the islands in late 2015/early 2016.

30 july/august 2015

Mark Fromage, Director, Treasury Services, RBC Wealth Management, Jersey

WHAT IS IT? Simply, it’s a reform programme aimed at avoiding a repeat of the financial crisis. It includes a new set of global standards to address both firm-specific and broader, systemic risks, such as: ● Raising the quality of capital to ensure banks are better able to absorb losses; ● Raising the minimum level of capital requirements to provide an enhanced common equity requirement, and; ● Introducing minimum global liquidity standards.

WHEN WAS IT INTRODUCED? It started on 1 January 2013, through phased implementation, and is subject to transitional arrangements leading to full implementation by 1 January 2019. Some aspects require full implementation prior to this date, with earlier full adoption by some countries being noted.

WHAT ARE THE RULES? There are many technical aspects to Basel III with some having more impact, depending upon an institution’s activities. For banking customers, the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) is an important rule that impacts deposit interest rates where clients wish to hold cash as liquidity. If a client commits funds for less than 30 days on a rolling basis, banks must apply certain treatments to these monies, which may mean a lower interest rate is applied than might historically have been the case. Essentially, retail client deposits that fall within certain criteria are afforded better treatment under the new rules. As a consequence, they have scope to receive a better interest rate when the funds are placed beyond 30 days on an ongoing committed basis. As we move through the spectrum of clients, ending up in the wholesale and larger value space, the applied treatment becomes unattractive from the bank’s point

of view. As a consequence, the bank may see little value in wholesale or large value deposits in the pure liquidity space. This is a marked change, as historically larger deposits were favoured in terms of deposit pricing. In future, this will not be true and certainly not when the requirement is to allow liquidity in less than 30 days.

WHERE ARE WE NOW? Focus is shifting to the LCR as implementation is required throughout the European banking industry by 1 October 2015. This may mean changes to certain client products that can’t meet required criteria, and banks may require some form of attestation to validate the appropriate applied treatment. It’s likely that different institutions will approach this in different ways, but it’s clear that segmenting client deposits within bank books is well underway. Basel III is a moving target, and some institutions are better prepared than others. It’s likely that more clients of banks, from retail to wholesale, will receive some form of communication from their bankers that refer to the changes underway. Ultimately, it may influence how some clients choose to run cash deposits as they see changes to the deposit pricing.

HOW ARE THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AFFECTED? As Channel Island banks are part of larger financial groups that are affected by the new rules, they will be adopting these rules in accordance with their group positioning. This is driven by the regulatory positioning of the parent bank, but also needs to take into account local regulation here in the Channel Islands.

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WHAT IS IT? The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a standard for the automatic exchange of information, introduced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which will facilitate information exchange between tax authorities globally. It’s essentially similar to the US FATCA regime, but on a global scale.

WHEN IS IT BEING INTRODUCED? On 29 October 2014, more than 50 countries (including the Crown Dependencies) signed a multilateral competent authority agreement implementing CRS. CRS will take effect from 1 January 2016. There are 58 jurisdictions that have committed to the first exchange of information in September 2017 (the ‘early adopters’, which again includes the Crown Dependencies) with a further 35 jurisdictions (the ‘later adopters’) committed to making their first exchange in 2018.

WHAT ARE THE RULES? A jurisdiction implementing CRS must have legislation in place requiring financial institutions to follow prescribed due diligence procedures, and to report specific information on accounts held by nonresident individuals and entities (including trusts) to their respective tax authority. The tax authority will then securely transmit the information to the account holders’ countries of residence on an annual basis.

WHERE ARE WE NOW? On 21 July 2014, the OECD released the full version of CRS, and further guidance notes are expected to be issued in the coming months. For many businesses, the scale of the requirements being introduced by the CRS and the tight time frame for implementation represent a significant challenge. However, while there are

HOW ARE THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AFFECTED? The US FATCA regime impacted many aspects of local industry, including banking, fund administration, fiduciary and certain insurance activities, and this impact will only broaden under CRS due to the greater geographical reach. While accurate and reliable FATCA processes and procedures will provide a good foundation for the implementation of the CRS, the volume and complexity of reporting under CRS will increase significantly – especially where local service providers have clients resident in many jurisdictions (given the variances in country reporting schemas, portal registrations and filing deadlines and requirements). Therefore, as well as the body of work required to become CRS compliant, there’s a separate exercise required to be able to file the actual reports in the specified format. Many local financial institutions will be familiar with this technological challenge having filed US FATCA returns in the IRS schema format. Given the impact of these regimes on both local service providers and their clients, we’ve seen industry wanting to invest time in getting this right to avoid possible issues down the line, including potential reputational risk if compliance issues arise.

Tim Andrews, Service Development Director, Ipes Guernsey

WHAT IS IT? The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is the attempt to eradicate tax evasion by US tax residents using foreign accounts. It applies to all foreign financial institutions (FFIs) both within and outside the United States. In practice, FATCA is a four-stage process of classification, registration, investigation and reporting.

WHEN WAS IT INTRODUCED? FATCA was enacted by US Congress in March 2010. It rose up the agendas of fund managers in 2014 as it was transposed into the law of most developed countries under intergovernmental agreements (IGAs).

WHAT ARE THE RULES? Under FATCA, FFIs must provide the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with information on certain US persons invested in foreign accounts. It applies to all FFIs, both within and outside the United States, irrespective of whether they transact in US dollars or have US investors or US portfolio companies. Fund managers were obliged to assess the tax status of investors and establish a new investor onboarding procedure by 1 July 2014. Managers had to classify each entity into a number of ‘buckets’ to determine if it had to be reported to the local tax authority. The deadline for registration of reportable entities with the IRS was 22 December 2014. This enabled the manager to obtain a Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN) on the IRS web portal by 31 December 2014. Annual reporting started in 2015.

WHERE ARE WE NOW? Having classified their structures and received their GIINs, many institutions are currently reviewing their due diligence on existing investors against the indicia

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Martin Popplewell, Tax Director, Deloitte Guernsey

differences between CRS and FATCA in their parameters and terminology, the processes involved for due diligence and reporting are similar in many instances. As a result, the first US FATCA reporting deadline (30 June 2015 in the Crown Dependencies) represented the initial challenge for many local businesses, with CRS expected to be incorporated into the existing FATCA project during Q3/Q4 2015.

Finance

specified under FATCA to determine whether the investor is reportable. Getting this decision wrong exposes them to risks of non-compliance, or could lead to the inadvertent incorrect reporting of investors to the tax authorities. Investors that are reportable as US taxpayers needed to be reported to the tax authority in the domicile of the entity by 30 June 2015, or 31 May 2015 in the UK. This is achieved using an XML file. In practice, not all institutions will have reached this point yet. For those who have not started classifying, registering or reporting, it isn’t too late. As this is the first year of implementation, tax authorities have indicated that they’ll take a pragmatic approach. However, institutions need to do it now to ensure that they remain compliant with local legislation. FATCA will apply to all new funds and investors. It’s therefore important to build the FATCA process into fund documents, due diligence and the reporting cycle. The requirements of the CRS, which will be in place by 2017, are similar – but not identical – to FATCA. Asking investors questions now would help avoid repeating the process in the future.

HOW ARE THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AFFECTED? Funds domiciled in the Channel Islands are captured under FATCA in the same way as funds domiciled elsewhere. The Channel Islands are regarded as having some of the most user-friendly and automated regulatory submission systems. One of the reasons for this is that they allow local banks and administrators to submit reports directly without the need for fund manager intervention. Some other jurisdictions’ regulatory portals and processes are not as straightforward.

32 july/august 2015

James Wood, Head of Compliance, Grant Thornton, Guernsey

WHAT IS IT? The primary objective of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) is to establish a safer, sounder, more transparent and responsible financial system. MiFID II is of relevance to investment firms, market operators and data-reporting services providers.

WHEN WAS IT INTRODUCED? The first Directive (MiFID) came into force on 1 November 2007. Following the global financial crisis, the European Commission (EC) decided to review the MiFID framework and on 20 October 2011 published proposals for a revised Directive (MiFID II) and a new Regulation (MiFIR). The EC will repeal and recast the original Directive effective 3 January 2017. This is a hard deadline for implementation, which EU member states have no scope to extend.

WHAT ARE THE RULES? Under MiFID, Channel Islands investment firms and market operators were allowed access to the EU, subject to member states’ discretion. Under MiFID II, however, the EC is looking to introduce a harmonised framework for granting access. Here’s a brief outline of options dependent on what services, if any, are to be offered to investors in member states. a) Target full European market. (Both retail and professional clients.) To provide any service to a retail client in a member state would require businesses to establish an authorised branch in the relevant country and comply with the rules of that country. b) Target professional/eligible counterparties in the European market. Businesses would need to become registered with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and comply with MiFIR. Member states could still require an authorised branch to be set up.

c) Non-targeting of investors in the EU. If businesses choose not to market products or promote directly to EU member states, there’s no impact. Reverse solicitation will allow European investors to approach Channel Island businesses, but further services can’t be promoted to any such investors in these circumstances.

WHERE ARE WE NOW? The next developments are expected over the summer with the results of the UK Treasury consultation and possible further announcements from the EC and ESMA – although at the time of writing, Steven Maijoor (ESMA’s Chair) has written to Jonathan Faull (Director General of DG FISMA) in reference to a joint EC/ESMA early legal review of the MiFID II/MiFIR draft regulatory technical standards (RTS). This will create a short but significant delay in the submission of the final RTS, from 3 July 2015 to 30 September 2015.

HOW ARE THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AFFECTED? MiFID II is more prescriptive in the requirements it places on investment firms with regard to how they’re organised and how they treat their clients. As such, this is likely to lead to changes in the local regulations in order for the islands to be considered equivalent third-party countries. Amendments can be expected for areas such as best execution, suitability, remuneration and conflicts of interest, and it’s likely that there will be further industry consultations in both islands in this regard. It’s worth noting that the UK, as an EU member state, could consider the Crown Dependencies to be third countries. The Treasury, in its consultation dated March 2015, has hinted at maintaining the current system insofar as MiFID II permits, but at this stage it’s in the balance, and industry and consumers could prefer to opt for Article 39 of MiFID II. n

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Investment Outcome Charting your own Course, South of France

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The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and investors may not get back the amount originally invested. In the UK, this advert is communicated by Canaccord Genuity Wealth Ltd (CGWL), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. In the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management (CGWM) is a trading name of Canaccord Genuity Wealth (International) Limited (CGWI) which is licensed and regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission and the Jersey Financial Services Commission. As CGWIL is not subject to regulation by the FCA any UK investors would not benefit from the FCA investor protection rules, including the Financial Ombudsman Service and Financial Services Compensation Scheme. CGWL and CGWI are wholly owned subsidiaries of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management does not make any warranties, express or implied that the products, securities or services mentioned are available in your jurisdiction. Accordingly, if it is prohibited to advertise or make the products, securities or services available in your jurisdiction, or to you (by reason of nationality, residence or otherwise) such products, securities or services are not directed at you. Investment involves risk. The investments discussed in this document may not be suitable for all investors.

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Are QROPS staging a comeback? Mason Birbeck, Head of the Corporate, Commercial and Trust team at Parslows, looks at how changes to pension rules have opened up the QROPS market in Jersey IN 2014, THE UK government announced

reforms that were described by some as a pensions ‘revolution’. Those reforms introduced ‘flexible drawdown’, relaxing long-standing restrictions on how, and from what age, pension savers could access their pension pots. This meant retirees would no longer be forced to buy an annuity to fund their pensions, which, in depressed economic times, often produced relatively poor returns for a lifetime’s saving. The first phase of flexible drawdown saw a reduction in size of the pension pot a retiree with a defined contribution pension needed before being entitled to draw a lump-sum proportion. A year on, the 2015 UK budget saw the abolition of restrictions on what proportion could be taken as a lump sum, and, as an alternative to the annuity option, the choice of a freely accessible drawdown contract. While not so fundamental, Jersey has seen similar reforms to its domestic pensions regime. Jersey’s pensions legislation is principally built into its primary tax legislation, the Income Tax (Jersey) Law 1961. In September 2014, an amendment to that law was passed, paving the way for implementation of, among other pension-based reforms, the following changes: • The existing 30 per cent limit on tax-free lump-sum withdrawals was retained – pensioners, however, have been given greater flexibility in the number of tranches by which that 30 per cent lump-sum entitlement may be drawn; • The requirement that a person of retirement age retires before drawing a pension no longer applies; and • Pension savers are now allowed to enter into a drawdown contract – attractive to those not wishing to secure their pension by way of an annuity – even if they’ve already received a tax-free lump sum from their pre-existing occupational pension scheme.

CROSSING BORDERS As well as introducing domestic reforms, the amendment to Jersey’s tax legislation opened opportunities for Jersey’s

international pensions offering, particularly in relation to Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS). The UK’s QROPS regime enables accrued benefits in a UK pension to be transferred to a non-UK-based scheme – where a UK employee is moving overseas, for example – without losing the tax breaks HMRC affords to UK-registered pension plans. For a QROPS scheme to be recognised, it has to meet certain criteria laid down by HMRC. Other international finance jurisdictions, Guernsey included, stole a march on Jersey with regard to accessing the ‘third-country QROPS’ market. In response, Jersey QROPS legislation was lodged for approval by the States in 2012. However, events intervened as around the same time – and in response to what it perceived as abuse of the QROPS regime – HMRC delisted a swathe of self-certified QROPS schemes established in various jurisdictions, including Guernsey. The third-country QROPS market survived nonetheless, and these latest amendments to Jersey’s pensions law may provide a shot in the arm for Jersey’s own QROPS offering. The UK rules don’t require a QROPS to be established in an individual’s new country of residence – so a QROPS established in, say, Guernsey could be used by a person moving from the UK to the other side of the world. Historically, however, Jersey QROPS were only permitted for Jersey residents. The recent changes to pensions law now allow Jersey residents to transfer their pensions to equivalent schemes in other jurisdictions. A corollary to that is the ability for local service providers to now offer Jersey QROPS to non-Jersey residents, removing a significant impediment to the promotion of Jersey as a QROPS-friendly jurisdiction.

The recent introduction of flexible drawdown in the UK from April 2015 also has implications for QROPS offerings in Jersey and elsewhere. Whether that will be positive is unclear. It remains somewhat uncertain whether or not HMRC’s principle that overseas scheme rules should mirror those in the UK will mean that QROPS will have to afford flexible drawdown with a similar age cap on accessing pension funds. For some jurisdictions offering QROPS, this would mean raising the current age limit provided for by their own legislation. Certain jurisdictions, such as Malta, have already made legislative moves to align their pension regimes with those changes to the UK rules, and it may be that Jersey will have to follow suit. n

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

For more information on pensions and Jersey QROPS contact Mason Birbeck at mason.birbeck@parslowsjersey.com or on +44 1534 630530. www.parslowsjersey.com

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Hedge funds

under the BEPS

Spotlight

36 july/august 2015

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of tax treaties, preventing avoidance of taxable presence in a jurisdiction and rewriting transfer pricing rules.

Words: David Burrows

BEPS has mainly impacted the bigger corporates, but questions have been raised about how changes to taxation might affect asset management. so Here’s our take on what hedge funds should look out for CURRENT INTERNATIONAL TAX

rules, which were designed to prevent double taxation, are based on principles that haven’t kept up with globalisation and the rise of the digital economy. As a result, there are gaps in the rules that allow ‘double non-taxation’ to occur – that is for profits not to be taxed at all. Even when companies do pay tax, they’re often able – perfectly legally – to use various schemes to shift profits across borders to take advantage of tax rates lower than those in the country where they made the majority of their profits. If you take Amazon as a case in point – officially, they may not have a delivery service in all of the countries where they sell goods. In Europe, their main business is based in tax-efficient Luxembourg, while the billions of euros in sales income generated elsewhere isn’t taxed in those countries. According to the OECD, some multinationals end up paying as little as five per cent in corporate taxes, while many smaller businesses are paying up to 30 per cent. These giant companies are able to exploit the fact that tax

systems are still essentially nation-based, designed for the ‘old’ economy where companies had a less global footprint and the internet was an almost inconceivable space-age idea. The media and anti-corporate organisations haven’t been slow to shine a spotlight on high-profile companies practicing these kinds of tricks, such as Amazon, Google and Starbucks. But there are many other companies across a broad number of sectors to which these charges can equally be applied. Acknowledging that a substantial overhaul was needed to combat base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), the OECD launched an ambitious 15-point action plan to rewrite international tax rules in 2013. This action plan is clear in its intention – it aims to close these tax gaps and prevent double non-taxation while maintaining its long-standing goal of preventing double taxation. In particular, the plan will address the tax challenges of the digital economy, countering harmful tax practices, increasing transparency, clamping down on the abuse

When it comes to who’ll be affected by changes brought about by BEPS, Richard Corrigan, Deputy CEO at Jersey Finance, insists the impact will be felt widely. “Household retailers have been the poster boys of the BEPS project. However, BEPS has such a broad scope that almost all businesses operating in multiple jurisdictions will be affected to some extent.” He believes the transparency actions will require businesses to report more information to authorities, and that this will have obvious administrative implications. On the substance side, he says there will be a greater emphasis on being able to demonstrate a genuine presence in the jurisdictions in which a business operates. In effect this means proving an office is not just a ‘letter box’ address, but a location where management decisions are made on a regular basis (see page 41). While the BEPS agenda isn’t specifically targeted at asset management groups, they will be affected by changes in the approach of tax authorities, domestic legislation and double tax agreements (DTAs). Corrigan suggests hedge funds, along with all asset managers, can expect greater scrutiny of their activities – particularly their operations that benefit from access to DTAs. However, with regards to what hedge funds should be thinking of doing now, he believes most will wait for more detail to emerge before they make any definite moves. “BEPS is a moving target, and it’s important that managers are aware of the potential recommendations and their implications. However, until clarity is received – hopefully before the end of the year – most won’t be taking any substantial action at this time.” Ben Robins, Partner at Mourant Ozannes in Jersey, takes a similar line. “As things stand, it’s not at all clear how BEPS will affect hedge funds as they don't necessarily rely on trading activity through entities enjoying tax treaty benefits – unlike, say, private equity funds. At the moment a hedge fund operating in London can operate under a UK limited liability partnership, which is tax efficient. “However, it’s been made clear that these partnerships will be scrutinised – if not under the BEPS initiative, then by the UK Treasury itself. A general preoccupation of the BEPS initiative is that profits should be taxed where substantive economic activities are actually taking place.” Robins says some hedge fund managers will be looking at what BEPS has up its

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THE WAITING GAME

Finance

sleeve with regard to point six of the action plan, which relates to the abuse of tax treaties. He also points out that other factors thrown into the mix, notably the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), could persuade hedge fund managers to reassess their position and the location of their business. London managers will need to be fully AIFMD compliant, so remuneration disclosure rules and potential leverage limits will apply, whereas in the Channel Islands – being non-EU – they won’t, unless they choose to comply in full.

CHANNEL ISLANDS APPEAL While hedge fund managers may not be flocking to the Channel Islands just yet, the presence of large firms such as BlueCrest – who recently moved from Guernsey to Jersey – could pave the way for others. Jersey, for instance, is currently home to around 25 hedge fund managers with assets under management of close to $121bn. Corrigan is confident that the appeal for managers to set up a genuine presence will only increase in a post-BEPS environment. “We have a strong pipeline of managers interested in relocating to the island,” he says. “As managers factor BEPS into the other benefits of the jurisdiction, such as tax transparency and AIFMD stance, we feel it will make us more appealing to them.” As Robins explains: “Asset managers like to be close to each other, and UK hedge funds have typically been centred in London’s Mayfair. With such a rapid trading strategy, it’s not always easy to move everything to a small offshore office outside a major financial centre. However, it’s starting to happen with companies like BlueCrest who are large enough to projectmanage a full team moving to the Channel Islands. Necessity may cause others to move as well, and the catalyst could be when the full details of BEPS are known.” Chris Hutley-Hurst, Senior Associate at Carey Olsen in Guernsey, is of a like mind

38 july/august 2015

Some hedge fund managers will be looking at what BEPs has up its sleeve with regard to point six of the action plan, which relates to the abuse of tax treaties

that rather than pre-emptive action being taken, it’s more a case of hedge fund managers girding their loins until the new rules are introduced. “There’s an element of watching to see how the OECD's proposals develop and how different jurisdictions implement such proposals,” he explains. “Hedge fund managers may consider either increasing their presence in an offshore jurisdiction such as Guernsey or Jersey, or relocating offshore altogether. While such a move may not protect a business from anti-BEPS laws entirely, it can protect it from the uncertainty and associated cost-climbs that could arise if rules are introduced in an uncoordinated manner.” Corrigan says that while there are still many details to be finalised, we do know of some elements that will be introduced in some form. “For example, businesses are starting to consider how they will integrate transparency initiatives such as country-bycountry reporting into their existing reporting systems and processes. Similarly, they will be looking at evidence of their substance. The BEPS agenda will not only require that substance exists but also that businesses can demonstrate it does.” In terms of a timeline for implementation of BEPS, the first seven actions were released in September 2014, though many required further work. The OECD has stated that an overall package – that’s all 15 actions – will be

finalised and delivered by the end of 2015. Given that they have rigorously stuck to their timetable so far, there is little reason to anticipate significant delays in getting to this point. But, as Corrigan points out, after this happens it will become more difficult to set out a timeline as international cooperation will be required. “The speed at which this progresses will be a real test of the international political commitment to the project.” Hutley-Hurst agrees that the speed of progress will be difficult to gauge, with movement in some areas like to be quicker than in others. “There’s broad political support for the BEPS project, and so some proposals, such as changes to permanent establishment rules [ensuring companies are taxed in the jurisdiction where their economic activity takes place], are likely to be implemented swiftly. Other proposals, such as those relating to transfer pricing, are likely to take much longer to implement.” He highlights areas of complication that are likely to emerge. “To prevent base erosion, one must first establish which country's tax base is being eroded,” he says. “Where different parties within a fund structure – for instance the investment manager, the administrator and the fund vehicle – are in different jurisdictions, this won’t be simple to establish, and it’s possible that more than one country could lay claim to taxing rights over the overall profits.” So, it looks like there’s good reason for fund managers to consider locating all services in a jurisdiction with a transparent and advantageous tax system, and where the financial services sector has long been supported by local expertise, ensuring high levels of corporate governance and appropriate level of compliance outside the costly confines of AIFMD. The Channel Islands certainly tick all these boxes. n DAVID BURROWS is a freelance financial writer

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Keep your eye on the DPT ball

Paul Woodman, Director and Head of Tax at Deloitte Jersey, examines the potential impact of BEPS and Diverted Profits Tax on Channel Island firms, and the action those firms must take

SINCE THE GLOBAL financial crisis

of 2008 there has been an unprecedented and co-ordinated effort to modernise and update the way that different countries’ tax systems work together. The perception had arisen, fuelled by political pressure and media scrutiny, that the current system was no longer fit for purpose in the digital age, and allowed multinational companies to artificially manipulate their operating models to pay little or no tax in countries where they were doing substantial amounts of business. The move to address this problem has been led by the G20 and OECD, and their base erosion and profits shifting (BEPS) agenda. BEPS is a programme of 15 actions addressing areas such as transfer pricing, treaty abuse, financing costs and taxable presence. The watchword is ‘substance’ – ensuring that profits are taxed in the country where the economic activity that gave rise to those profits actually happened.

From a Channel Islands perspective, our zero-ten system is not being attacked – the BEPS agenda doesn’t seek to stop countries setting their own tax rates, including low (or zero) rates. However, given the perception that international finance centres like Jersey and Guernsey exploit the cracks and gaps between the tax regimes of larger countries to cause profits to disappear, or to be recognised in territories with little tax or business activity, it would be naive to assume that we’ll be unaffected, and local businesses and structures need to start considering how the 15 BEPS actions might affect them. Some countries have already sought to implement aspects of the BEPS proposals though changes to domestic tax law. The most high-profile example of this, which is highly relevant to businesses in the Channel Islands, is the diverted profits tax (DPT), which was brought in from 1 April this year in the UK.

In essence, DPT seeks to identify and tax profits that have been artificially diverted away from the UK. This can happen in two ways: either a foreign company with sales or other activity in the UK can arrange its affairs in such a way as to avoid creating a taxable presence (or ‘permanent establishment’ in tax terminology) in the UK; or a UK company can enter into transactions with a non-UK counterparty which lack economic substance. The rate of DPT is 25 per cent, which is higher than the 20 per cent rate of UK corporation tax – this is intended to encourage businesses to change the way their corporate structures are set up. Some Channel Island businesses could be affected by DPT. In particular, this could include Jersey and Guernsey companies undertaking property development projects in the UK, captive insurance companies and asset management houses that have part of their business structure in the Channel Islands. Given that DPT is aimed primarily at ‘big business’, there are exemptions for small and medium-sized enterprises to which DPT doesn’t apply, but the rules for determining whether a business is small or medium-sized are complex, and establishing whether the exemption applies is something that many may need assistance with. One other aspect of the regime essential to consider is that a company must notify HMRC if it’s potentially within the scope of DPT. This notification must be made within three months of the company’s accounting period (extended to six months for the first period post April 2015). This means the first notifications could be due as early as this October. There are penalties for failure to notify, and also the possibility of significant reputational damage, so many local businesses will be looking for independent assistance to decide whether a notification obligation exists or not. Company auditors will also need to be satisfied that this question has been given appropriate consideration and that the conclusion has been properly documented. n

FIND OUT HOW DELOITTE CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS

There’s a lot for local business to consider in relation to BEPS and DPT, and Deloitte is advising clients all over the world on how to deal with these issues. To find out more about how we can help, visit the Deloitte BEPS portal at www.beps.tax; contact Jo Huxtable, Partner and Head of Tax in Guernsey, on +44 1481 703308 or at jhuxtable@deloitte.co.uk; or Paul Woodman, Director and Head of Tax in Jersey, on +44 1534 824208 or at prwoodman@deloitte.co.uk

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Finance

With a host of new rules to comply with, pressure is being put on firms to demonstrate that they have ‘substance’ – a real presence in a jurisdiction – not just a ‘letter box’ address

Your office

is where, exactly? Words: David Burrows

can have distinct advantages for a business. However, to benefit from advantageous tax treatment or avoid red tape associated with various EU directives or regulation, an offshore address that is little more than a brass plate on a wall with someone inside manning the phones is just not going to cut it these days. Under new guidelines from the OECD, companies will only be able to benefit from the advantageous tax treatment available in jurisdictions such as the Channel Islands if they demonstrate what Simon Schilder, Partner at Ogier in Jersey, refers to as “mind and management on the island”. In essence this means that companies need to be able to prove that operational and management decisions are being made there on a regular basis. In this much tighter regulatory environment, investment managers will increasingly choose to set up their own offices (also known as ‘substance’) in their preferred jurisdictions, rather than outsource or maintain a token office presence, which could weaken any claim for domiciled status. Having a genuine presence in the Channel Islands also means you’ll have a reduced burden when it comes to Alternative Investment Fund

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▼

AS AN INVESTMENT manager, having a presence in a city or country

For many years, there has been a clear requirement in the Channel Islands for companies to demonstrate real expertise on the ground and to show that investment decisions are made here

Managers Directive (AIFMD) disclosure and transparency. This has distinct appeal to those not wishing to be bound by the remuneration disclosure rules applicable to all EU managers. Schilder makes the point that with their long history of being able to offer such substance services to clients and a deep pool of sophisticated labour resources, Jersey and Guernsey are ideally placed to take the lead among competitor jurisdictions as the demand for such substance services grow. His views are broadly echoed by Andrew Whittaker, Managing Director of Ipes in Guernsey. “If you’re an investment manager operating in the Channel Islands, you have to prove economic activity is taking place for tax reasons,” he explains. “In effect you have to prove that you aren’t just a ‘letter-box entity’. It’s also about having employees and demonstrating you have people with the right credentials to carry out investment management roles. That you’re doing the same type of business that you would do in your London office.” But what exactly defines a ‘genuine presence’? “So, if you have 100 people in Paris and one in Guernsey, then the activity is really going to be in Paris,” explains Whittaker. “It’s conceivable that you could have one or two people based in the Channel Islands responsible for most investment decisions, but it’s easier to argue your case if you have a strong team of people based in a Channel Islands office.”

CREATING A PRESENCE So what were companies doing before, if they didn’t have a real presence? Were they outsourcing to Channel Island firms, or setting up a dummy office with no one there? Wendy Lambert, Solicitor with Jersey-based Lambert Legal, says she’s not aware of dummy offices having been set up in the Channel Islands to any great extent. She makes the point that Jersey and Guernsey have historically supported a more substancebased model, and that in recent times the growing trend towards

42 july/august 2015

increasing substance on the islands is really only developing this model further. Her sentiments are largely echoed by Ben Robins, Partner at Mourant Ozannes. “The classic model for private equity and real estate funds for many years has been to have management decisions made in Jersey and for expert directors to be on board in the Channel Islands. This has been the standard even before AIFMD and the BEPS initiative [the OECD’s action points to address Base Erosion and Profit Shifting].” Robins suggests that it has largely been hedge funds that have set up offices in tax-beneficial jurisdictions but have then carried out discretionary activity from their main onshore offices. It seems, though, that in the majority of cases these business models have tended to use jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands rather than Jersey or Guernsey. He believes the Channel Islands’ capacity to offer substance will continue to be an attraction for asset managers, ensuring a steady and healthy increase in companies establishing offices. “We are already seeing large hedge fund managers move to the Channel Islands [see page 36]. In the hedge fund community, companies watch what other companies are doing very closely and I think it’s likely we’ll see other hedge fund managers follow this lead.” Robins stresses that while the discussion about substance has always been there in the Channel Islands, the BEPS initiative and AIFMD have upped the ante somewhat with regards to where and how companies set up offices. It’s a point that Niamh Lalor, Partner at Ogier in Jersey, expands on. She believes increased regulation will see more companies establishing a real presence in the Channel Islands. “Developments in international extra-territorial regulation, in particular AIFMD, continue to dominate the regulatory agenda in Jersey. With the popularity of Jersey funds for marketing into Europe, particularly among private equity and real estate managers, Jersey’s preparedness for AIFMD remains significant, so we expect

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Finance

further interest in companies establishing real presence in the Channel Islands.”

ON THE GROUND

With regards to the Channel Islands regulating on substance, there are minimum standards. Lalor explains the current situation: “In Jersey, any entity wishing to carry on financial service business must satisfy the JFSC that the applicant is a ‘fit and proper’ person to be licensed,” she explains. “The JFSC’s licensing policy in respect of those activities that require registration under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law sets out a number of criteria for applicants to meet, including the requirement to demonstrate local management and control (‘heart and mind of management’). In addition, the codes of practice governing the conduct of regulated persons set out a number of principles to which regulated companies must adhere, including the requirement to demonstrate strong corporate governance in Jersey.” Lambert believes there has been a steady increase in companies setting up a genuine presence in the Channel Islands, but says there are no concrete figures to quantify growth levels. “Most of the companies are from the UK and Europe. I’m not aware of too many companies from elsewhere making the move.” She believes that a growing trend in companies setting up their own offices is hugely positive. “Every time a company establishes an office, they are engaging the services of professional advisers, such as lawyers and accountants, and they’re also often engaging the services of other local businesses, such as builders and plumbers. In short, they’re supporting our economy.” Robins echoes Lambert’s positive stance, though he envisages ‘substance’ working in different ways for different sized businesses. “I don’t think there will be one business

model. We have seen larger companies such as BlueCrest move lock, stock and barrel to Guernsey [they subsequently moved operations to Jersey in 2014], bringing their own employees to the island. But for small and mid-sized managers I think you’ll see them heavily backed up by support services in the Channel Islands under substance rules. They will hire and second people locally rather than move people across from the onshore office.” Robins agrees that most of the companies moving to the Channel Islands have been from the UK and Europe, with little migration from the US or Asia. He suggests that may change in time as the benefits of Jersey and Guernsey are appreciated more widely. “I think when AIFMD really starts to bite, the places that will really start to struggle are those that have been ‘brass plate’ jurisdictions – such as the Caribbean, where there haven’t been the same regulatory requirements for substance. In contrast, there has, for many years, been a clear requirement in the Channel Islands for companies to demonstrate real expertise on the ground and to show that investment decisions are made here.” Jersey and Guernsey are ideally placed to do well in this new regulatory environment, but, as Robins concludes, there’s no rush. “We might not see a flood of companies setting up on the islands but nor would we want to. I think steady growth over time is far more beneficial.” n DAVID BURROWS is a freelance financial writer

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t n e t n o c ? k r n u i o t y s s g e o D arketin m

In d e k n n Li eting o s t pos nt mark out r o les conte rowing ks c i t r y a t good just th it stic n a m u s b a , ot ome of e n e k , t i i y l t r u w li ts o a a r y u h o t s q , og book a ng and hoping l b n e i a y o u c a n d F a cu t ta r g e ts t u f f a n d o is ab piles of 44 july/august 2015

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Business

Words: Dr Liz Alexander

Every minute – every minute – almost 2.5 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook, while 277,000 tweets go out. In the first quarter of 2015, LinkedIn members generated more than 100,000 long-form posts. And as for blog posts, more than two million were written back in 2012 alone, so lord knows how many are going out into the ether in 2015. A few years ago it was estimated that the amount of information consumed daily on the internet was enough to fill 168 million DVDs (how outdated does that sound now?). That’s everything just mentioned, plus online magazine articles, white papers, newsletters, infographics, presentations on SlideShare, ‘thought leadership’ pieces, YouTube videos, webinars, Pinterest pins, photos on Instagram, Google+… the list goes on. But how much of that content sufficiently interests, engages and inspires readers to take action – actually leading to more business? As blogger, author, strategist and speaker Jeff Bullas points out, the ‘holy grail’ of content marketing (sometimes referred to as ‘inbound marketing’) is to use content to attract clients and customers to you, rather than chase them down with cold calling and more traditional sales methods, or ‘outbound marketing’. And Bullas should know – Onalytica ranked him number one ‘content marketing influencer’ globally in 2014, and his brand awareness is so successful his blog receives over five million page views a year. And this approach is as true for B2B as B2C because, says Bullas: “You’re always dealing with a human being. The product might be different, the problems the audience faces might be different, the way they consume content might be different. That just means you use different media.”

THINK STRATEGY To succeed with content marketing, everything you write, tweet or post must have a strategic focus, such as introducing a new or broader audience to your brand. Content strategist Anne Caborn, Founder of In the Content Lab, gives an example of recently working with a start-up to enhance their web and social media traffic. This included identifying blog topics of interest to their target market – dog owners – and creating a tone of voice that would engage that core audience. “The focus was to attract Twitter followers, increase Facebook likes, and other web traffic measured by Google Analytics,” she explains. “The aim wasn’t to monetise, but to raise the baseline audience before going all out to launch new products.” On the other hand, a well-established financial services company might convey expertise, knowledge and trusted advisor status by posting articles like ‘10 ways to never have a credit problem’ or ‘How to ensure your real estate investment pays off’, suggests Bullas. But companies still seem to struggle when it comes to getting the most out of content marketing. Indeed,

some don’t even bother. A recent survey question posed to SmartBrief’s 200,000 online subscribers asked: how effectively do content marketing efforts (blogs, white papers, etc) drive action by your customers? The responses came out as follows: ● Extremely – our content marketing drives great lead generation: 6.06% ● Generally – our content sometimes sparks new conversations with prospects/clients: 34.55% ● Not at all – our content generates few, if any, comments, feedback or leads: 36.97% ● Not the point – we only publish content because everyone else does: 4.24% ● Not relevant – we have much higher priorities than content marketing: 18.18% This is in line with TrackMaven’s report ‘The Content Marketing Paradox: Is More Content Really Better?’, which said that in 2013/14 ‘the output of content per brand increased by 78 per cent but content engagement decreased by 60 per cent’. This led TrackMaven to conclude that ‘a growing majority of professional marketing content is ineffective’.

STAY RELEVANT Arguably the main reason for this is lack of relevance, explains Chris Chilton, Account Director at Channel Island firm Orchard PR. “The most engaging content takes a macro view. It’s not about your banking product, it’s about evaluating current trends,” he explains. “If you look at what’s topical within important magazines and on social media, so you can fit your business into what people are talking about, it’s more likely to result in questions and sharing.” Or as Caborn puts it: “You wouldn’t sit next to someone at a dinner party and bark in their ear: ‘Established in 1978 and a leader in our field! We have an offer!’ Yet much marketing content can come across like this. Start by asking what they’re interested in, and tailor what you say about your business to reflect this.” While eMarketer.com reported that 41 per cent of internet users in the UK dislike brands suggesting ‘things that are of no specific interest to me’, a separate YouGov survey asked what types of content would make internet users think less of a brand – the top response (50 per cent) was ‘intrusive content.’ “When I think of a brand being intrusive, it’s behaving in a way that doesn’t suit it,” says Chilton.

You wouldn’t sit next to someone at a dinner party and bark in their ear: ‘Established in 1978 and a leader in our field! We have an offer!’

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▼

HERE ARE SOME figures to make your head spin:

Business

43% Lack of In-House Resources/Skills

42% Inability to Measure ROI

39% Lack of an Effective Strategy

34% Lack of Compelling Content

31% Lack of Integration Across Marketing 46 july/august 2015

Source: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs

ZZZ

DR LIZ ALEXANDER is an author, educator, business strategist, and Founder of business consultancy Leading Thought

How to tell a story Writing well is not the same as effective storytelling, says Lisa Cron, author of Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. People pay attention to emotion-based stories because if we’re not feeling, we’re not really reading. Here are her five tips for telling more engaging stories when crafting content: 1. Zero in Determine the one relevant, goal-focused message you want your readers to consider differently when they’ve finished reading or watching. 2. Hook ‘em Craft a great headline and a powerful opening sentence. In journalism, the opening paragraph of a story is known as a ‘lead’, and is specifically crafted to compel readers to read on. 3. Nix abstractions Use words that paint pictures in your readers’ heads, not just dry facts, statistics or general concepts. 4. Court conflict We don’t read stories for happy, calm scenarios, but to see how the hero (the reader, not you!) overcomes obstacles. Show how, as their guide, you’ll help them actually achieve something. 5. E dit, edit, edit All good writing is rewriting. Compelling content is crafted. Write, set aside, seek feedback, edit multiple times and then – and only then – post.

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Icon images: tanuha2001 / Shutterstock.com

The top five most challenging obstacles to social media marketing success

“Such as a waste management company tweeting or blogging about the royal baby just because it’s topical, not because it’s relevant to the product.” Other no-nos relate to consistent quality and credibility. As Christopher Journeaux, Marketing and PR Consultant at Channel Island creative communications agency Betley Whitehorne Image, says: “One man told me he didn’t need designers and marketing people for branding because ‘this stuff is so easy, I can do it myself’. Something similar happens with content marketing. The fact you can write or type doesn’t mean what you create is any good. A journalist or PR person who’s a great copywriter and understands storytelling (see right) is going to craft better content than an intern. If you want to attract a receptive audience for your content marketing, have it written by a professional.” Professionals know that great content means ‘dialogue’ not ‘monologue’. As Doug Kessler, Creative Director and Co-founder at B2B marketing agency Velocity Partners, says: “Traditional marketing talks at people, content marketing talks with people.” That is, if you’re doing it right. “A lot of people forget content marketing is two words: content and marketing. It doesn’t mean you create content and wait for the golden goose to turn up and the sales to just roll in,” says Bullas. Dale Bryce, Director, Customer Strategy & Market Development for Entura in Sydney, Australia, a specialist power and water consulting firm, understands the relationship between conversations and content. The firm recently built a digital hub for their content and posted an article about dam safety. Instead of sitting back hoping it reached the right people, Bryce worked with the sales team to use this content as a proactive lead generator. “In one case, we drafted a simple, personalised email targeted at a particular client we knew would be interested – they operate more than 30 dams – but who hadn’t worked with us for some time. We pointed out that our article focused on protecting lives and driving efficiencies and said, if they were interested, we’d introduce them to one of our principal consultants to discuss further.” And now, says Bryce, Entura is in discussions about a dam safety programme with this organisation. Certainly, with increasing noise and clutter online it’s becoming harder to attract attention. A well-planned content marketing strategy gets around this by producing consistent, high-quality, relevant, customer-centric content and integrates that with the real-life conversations that can and do lead to more business. n

Business

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Gained in If your firm wants a strong global presence, having staff with language skills may well be the difference between success and failure

48 july/august 2015

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Business

translation emotional intelligence you gain from a language degree. Plus you can always provide a better service to clients when you speak their language, as you’re far better equipped to understand their personal needs and circumstances. However, the tangible economic benefit is often grossly undervalued by employers.” Truelove also highlights the demand for foreignlanguage speakers that’s not being met in the islands at the moment: “We have Middle Eastern clients and have a requirement for Arabic speakers with private client trust experience. It’s currently extremely challenging to fill that position because there simply aren’t the people here with the relevant skills, yet it’s a key market the island is looking at.”

BREAKING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER Kate Clouster, Guernsey Finance’s recently appointed Director of International Business Development, is one of those looking at new markets for the island’s finance industry. She’s fluent in six languages, including Arabic and Mandarin, as well as French, Italian and Spanish, and believes the value of learning foreign languages is obvious. “I started learning languages from a very young age as my grandparents were Canadian,” she says. “In 2011 I changed career and decided the most important thing I could do was learn Chinese, as I felt that was absolutely crucial for my future employability.” John Shouler has recently opened the head office of his global translating business, Tongue Tied, in Jersey, and believes there is plenty of demand in the islands for his services. He agrees that knowledge of other languages is crucial in a modern economy. “I just don’t think you can get away with expecting that the rest of the world speaks English any longer. EU rules, for example, say that if you send products to an EU country, the documentation has to be in the language of that country. There are so many benefits to having language skills, and employers should recognise that.” But if firms do accept the value of foreign-language speakers, which languages should they be learning? A recent UK report named Spanish as the most important, with French, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and Russian also making the list. Anna Lisa Detassis, Director at Accent Language School in Guernsey, believes this reflects the demand she’s seeing. “French and Spanish are always popular with people who come to us to learn languages, though we’re also seeing trends towards Chinese and Russian. “We have employers sending their employees to us for a whole range of reasons. It’s not unusual to have requests from accountancy firms and banks to teach new staff who have just arrived in the island how to

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▼

Words: Tamara Timothy

THE WORLD HAS become a smaller place, but language barriers can prove as much of a bar to business as distance once did. As Guernsey Finance and Jersey Finance, the Channel Islands’ promotional bodies, seek out new markets globally, the industries they’re promoting are out to make the most of the opportunities that exist. For some firms, this has meant opening new offices elsewhere in the world, giving them a physical presence in Europe, Asia, or whichever location suits their business. With this comes a demand on the ground for fluent, ideally native, speakers – a need that can be felt just as keenly at home. As Head of Fund Services at Carey Group, Joe Truelove works with foreign-language speakers in the Guernsey office and the group’s other bases. A language graduate himself, he’s clear on the benefits of studying other languages for both the student and employer. “There are the intangibles, such as the self-confidence, communication skills and

Business

We often see directors and others at a high level wanting to learn languages conversationally so they can speak with a certain fluency to their business contacts

write more businesslike English. At the same time, we often see directors and others at a high level wanting to learn languages conversationally so they can speak with a certain fluency to their business contacts.”

CULTURAL EXCHANGE For those who have dealt with clients in other countries, it’s clear that the benefits to business of speaking a foreign language stretch far beyond basic communication. Clouster emphasises the importance of the cultural education that naturally follows from learning a language. “The key thing for business is that it’s about the culture as much as the language,” she says. “If you look at a language such as Chinese, you will learn so much about the culture by learning the language as they are totally intertwined. By being educated about the culture, you’ll understand far better how the people you’re dealing with approach problems and the way they think about business. And clearly, if you understand how somebody is thinking, you’re far better placed to meet their needs.” It’s an opinion Detassis agrees with. “Just a little knowledge of the language and the culture can make a huge difference,” she says. “In Russia, for example, speaking just a few sentences of the language shows clients that you take them seriously, and it’s very likely to change their perspective of you. “It also really helps to be prepared for their culture. You should know that in Russia there may well be a visit to a sauna and some vodka drinking alongside the business and be ready for that to be suggested. That cultural awareness isn’t really seen as a business need yet, but it certainly should be.” In the UK, concerns have been raised that rather than the importance of speaking foreign languages being recognised, there has been a drop in the numbers of young people choosing to study other languages. For Clouster, this is a wasted opportunity. “From a purely demographic perspective it’s going to be so important that we have a population that includes Chinese speakers,” she explains. “That’s a language that is much easier for the younger generation to learn. At six or seven years old it’s not difficult to pick up Mandarin – as an adult it’s much harder.” For Detassis the problem starts at school: “In other countries, more importance is given to languages as

50 july/august 2015

a necessary tool that everybody needs. In Italy, Germany and Spain, bilingual schools aren’t uncommon, so young people leave education with a clear language advantage. There should be more of a focus on learning languages in schools here.” The lack of effort among native English speakers to learn other languages is well known. Yet among our experts, there didn’t appear to be any fear that English would be overtaken as the international language of business in the foreseeable future. Speaking English as a native language clearly still offers huge benefits in comparison with other tongues. But the consensus was that to rely on the strength of the English language would not only be foolish, but also shortsighted – and leave individuals and firms open to missed opportunities in the future. After all, relying on your business contacts to speak English is all very well, until it puts you at a disadvantage. “An English speaker in a meeting with a group of Russians speaking English is fine until they decide to have a conversation about him in Russian,” Truelove explains. As companies consider the value of their staff speaking other languages, they may do well to heed Nelson Mandela’s words: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” Modern business may be conducted with the head, but the relationships that many in service industries rely on are more likely to be built from the heart. n TAMARA TIMOTHY is a freelance writer

Talking about the future The British Council recently identified the 10 languages they believe are of crucial importance to the UK’s prosperity, security and influence in the future. Cultural factors were taken into account alongside economic ones, but the results may still be surprising. A survey conducted at the same time suggested that three quarters of the UK population couldn’t hold a conversation in any of these languages. 1. Spanish 2. Arabic 3. French 4. Mandarin Chinese 5. German

6. Portuguese 7. Italian 8= Russian 8= Turkish 10. Japanese

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Making the tricky transition from start-up to scale-up can prove more difficult than getting your business off the ground in the first place. But why? and what can firms do about it? Words: Dave Waller

52 july/august 2015

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Business

by PwC, costing £20,000. So I had to borrow money against my personal savings instead.” Loane points out that this strategy of growth by acquisition (C5 had acquired Cronus the year before) was itself only necessary because of another problem common to many start-ups – a lack of available talent. This issue has had plenty of exposure lately, with the perceived skills gap among school leavers. It becomes even greater in an area with obvious geographical limitations, such as the Channel Islands. “In 2011 I ran out of people,” says Loane. “Until then I’d grown by finding the right people, but suddenly I couldn’t find the skills. We were growing, thanks to our apprenticeship and graduate scheme, but it was incredibly slow. So I had to change my growth strategy and start making acquisitions.”

CHANGING SHAPE Like many others before him, Loane wound up taking on a second business bigger than his own, giving him the added challenge of pulling everyone together to form one unified whole. Yet even if they only grow organically and never have to accommodate another company culture, many start-ups find the inevitable presence of new blood challenging. As the company expands to accommodate extra people, the original focus, goals and identity of the business can fade. The result is often conflict – growth requires quick decisions, which can add a lot of pressure when the stakes are so high. Other businesses may find issues arise not with their culture but with their offering. The entire company may have to shift from its original product idea to something completely different. “Years ago I worked on a start-up creating a web callback system that would connect people with customer-service reps at the click of a button,” says Eric Van der Kleij, Head of Level39, a business accelerator in London. “We thought we’d soon have thousands of millions of buttons on sites round the world. But

▼

YOU DON’T HAVE to look too hard to find a start-up these days, whether it’s a new mother coding an app at her kitchen table, or a bunch of beards launching a cafe that sells only breakfast cereal. This actually happened, by the way, when the Cereal Killer Cafe opened in Shoreditch, London – one of 526,000 new businesses launched last year in the UK, according to government statistics. In the run-up to the general election, every major party lauded this kind of can-do spirit. But even the most pioneering of start-ups will come up against a serious problem soon enough – once the business exists, you generally have to make it bigger. And this is where it gets tricky. According to the Entrepreneurs Index, published by Barclays and the Business Growth Fund, the number of start-ups in the UK rose by 3.7 per cent in the second half of 2014 – the second highest increase since the index was first published in 2012. But the number of businesses reaching revenues between £2.5 million and £100 million fell to 21 per cent – a 2.2 per cent drop from the same period the previous year. All of which begs a simple question: why is it so difficult to scale a business? The one issue most commonly discussed when it comes to scale is finance – growth requires capital. And while alternative crowdfunding models like Funding Circle or Crowdcube are becoming increasingly mainstream, they still make up only a tiny fraction of the funding market. The vast majority of businesses still go straight to a high-street bank for their loot, but the terrain in the wake of the economic crisis can make this a frustrating experience. “Money is surprisingly difficult to get at any decent rate,” says Mark Loane, Founder of Channel Island-based C5 Alliance, which has grown from five people to more than 150 since it launched in 1999. “Banks are simply too risk-averse to give support. When I was about to buy Itex Holdings in 2013, the bank decided it wouldn’t give me the money 48 hours ahead of the deal. Its UK audit group said it was too risky and that I’d need a full audit

pains

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Business

a boost of just one per cent to the UK’s scale-up population could drive an additional 238,000 jobs and add £38bn to gVa within three years

there weren’t enough web users then. Plus e-commerce suddenly became about automation, not speaking to anyone, so we had to pivot and developed automated credit card fraud alerts instead. “This was a huge challenge. We were one type of business, with expertise in e-commerce delivery, and we had to completely change to become a fintech company – which meant learning about banking and compliance, and rehiring an entirely different skill set.” Of course when a company happens to land on precisely the right product, this may itself necessitate a switch of similar proportions: expansion into overseas markets. Again, this is particularly pertinent to businesses experiencing the Channel Islands’ natural limitations. If you’ve saturated the local market, how else could you grow? And guess what: this isn’t easy either. Expanding overseas requires a leap in legal, tax and regulatory expertise, which can be a huge hurdle – especially in heavily regulated areas like financial services and fintech. For firms that produce products as opposed to existing online or offering professional services, there are all sorts of problems to solve regarding exports, warehousing, delivery and the like. But this is where things start looking brighter – crack the overseas nut and you’ll find yourself staring at a great opportunity. “Only seven per cent of companies in Europe sell cross-border,” says Van der Kleij. “So there’s a huge potential addressable market if you can overcome those barriers.”

TECH ADVANCES There’s one other tool these days that can enable vast growth – the internet. Thanks to the online revolution it’s never been easier to build a wider presence, with developments like e-commerce and social media enabling national or international expansion without the need for a vast physical footprint or marketing budget. “The opportunity is immense,” says Simon Devonshire, scale-up specialist and one of the UK government’s Entrepreneurs-inResidence, who’s become somewhat of a digital evangelist for

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scale-ups. “We’ve never had more processing power, or connectivity for virally contagious marketing. Or such availability of open-source code. All this creates huge opportunities for growing businesses.” This comes with its own problems – companies can get seduced by the ease of testing, launching and marketing a product or service online without factoring in the potentially high cost of, say, customer support once it’s live. But, says, Devonshire, if your business isn’t online you’re missing a trick. If it is online already, then you need to get selling online. If you’re doing all that already? Then make it all look and function better. Healthy growth could prove crucial not just for the health of the individual company but for a country’s wider fortunes. Sherry Coutu, author of The Scale-Up Report on UK Economic Growth, writes that: “Competitive advantage doesn’t go to the nations that focus on creating companies, it goes to nations that focus on scaling companies.” According to her report, submitted to the government at the end of 2014, a boost of just one per cent to the UK’s scale-up population could drive an additional 238,000 jobs and add £38bn to GVA within three years. Indeed, start-ups don’t exist in isolation. Devonshire is keen to point out that just as small companies are struggling to scale, so larger corporations are facing similar issues of their own – take the £6.4bn loss Tesco posted earlier this year. The problem of growth – of access to finance, talent and customers – is just as big a deal at the far end of the spectrum too. “What’s interesting is that those big and small companies are each other’s antidote,” says Devonshire. “Big businesses can’t get the talent, as young people now want to gamble on their own abilities with an equity stake at a smaller place. But big businesses are the ones with the access to market. If big businesses can find intelligent and effective ways to integrate and collaborate with these smaller, dynamic businesses, it could create a win-win.” n DAVE WALLER is a freelance business writer

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Technology

New ‘commandments’ from the FCA mean that financial institutions have to use legal wording in tweets and social media posts. But is this just compliance gone mad?

Banks:

be careful

what you

tweet Words: Ben Jordan

social media has the potential to be a humanising influence, establishing a dialogue so customers can give honest feedback. It represents a grassroots way of connecting with customers, creates a place to start a conversation and helps your brand stand out. Of course, the very nature of social media means that ‘honest feedback’ might just be ‘disgruntled

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IN A CLIMATE of mistrust of financial institutions,

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THOU SHALT USE RISK WARNINGS ON THY TWEETS

▼

The FCA hasn’t given guidance on negative engagement, and I’d be intrigued to see how companies respond to that

of Didsbury’ slagging you off on Facebook or bombarding you with Tweets. After all, social media pages are a shopfront and can be vulnerable to having the odd virtual brick thrown at them. Getting social media right is still a minefield, and for financial institutions it’s one that is made harder to navigate because of the financial crisis. After all, who wants to hear how ‘totes amazeballs’ your bank is, or that it has great offers for new customers when you’re struggling to pay your mortgage? While there’s no escaping that social media can be a powerful platform for financial promotions and expert advice, the whole social universe has been made more problematic by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which has been to the mountaintop and brought down a few new commandments regarding its use. In March it presented new guidelines for the correct use of social media by financial institutions, and they cover pretty much everything – blogs, forums, social networks such as Facebook and image- and video-sharing platforms such as Youtube and Vine. The 20-page handbook is meant to give firms clear guidance on the correct use of social media, and it’s also designed to protect the consumer and promote competition between providers. As with financial promotions on any media, the FCA requires there be strict compliance, and the new guidelines have widened their circle of influence. Under the new regulations, if a firm advertises a financial product on social media and misrepresents the facts, or underplays risk, they could wind up in serious trouble. Now, let’s have a look at these ‘new commandments’.

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The guidelines stipulate that financial promotions must contain a ‘health warning’ on financial risks. This works fine on billboards, but for a 140-character tweet the warning itself could become the message. “Health warnings are a bugbear of PRs. The FCA rules balance the benefits and risks of that, but we have to recognise it’s a challenge,” says Steve Falla, CEO at Guernsey-based Orchard PR. As Jenna McCabe, Associate Director at Quilter Cheviot in Jersey, states: ‘‘The heavily regulated area of financial services marketing can be difficult enough with lengthy disclaimers and risk warnings, let alone when sticking to 140 characters. In order to issue a promotion without a standard disclaimer requires a firm to elicit no advice, advert or enticement – so what exactly can be said?’ Much can be lost in translation because of the character limits on social media and complexity of some products. The FCA recommends the use of ‘image advertising’ on these platforms. “This refers to an advert with little else but an image and a firm’s brand which wouldn’t require a disclaimer,” explains McCabe. “We’ve adapted by using emotive imagery for our brand promotions, and it can actually make firms more creative. The rules are a lot more relaxed in terms of images – you can put as much information as you want in an infographic.”

THOU SHALT BE FAIR, CLEAR AND NOT MISLEADING One concern is that a customer could be driven to invest in a product that isn’t suitable through misleading advertising. ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort used pressure selling to push worthless stock on the public. How many people could his firm Stratton Oakmont have defrauded if they had access to social media? As Adam Riddell, Chair of the Channel Islands Group of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, explains: “The notes are intended to give firms guidance on promoting financial instruments, and the FCA have sought not to be overly prescriptive or burdensome. All financial promotions are subject to risk and compliance and the same rules apply on social media.”

THOU SHALT NOT USE THY NEIGHBOUR’S TWEET IN VAIN Retweeting is also a potential legal minefield. FCA rules permit sharing others’ tweets, such as financial forecasts, but institutions are liable for third-party content. They can retweet praise from a satisfied customer, but if the customer endorses a product it will be treated

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as a financial promotion, and so all the same rules would apply. Tweets must be ‘fair, clear and not misleading’ even if they end up in front of an unintended recipient. This is equivalent to trying for a ‘universal’ rating for a film in every country on the planet.

THOU SHALT HAVE STAND-ALONE COMPLIANCE, AND APPOINT AN ELDER TO APPROVE AND KEEP RECORDS Another FCA decree requires a robust approval process. Someone senior in the organisation needs to sign off each message to provide clear accountability, and there also needs to be stand-alone compliance for every communication. But the danger with these measures is they can inhibit an organisation’s ability to be responsive on a fast medium like social media. “We’ve appointed two people to manage our social media, plus a fully trained compliance analyst,” says Quilter’s McCabe. “But for a multi-jurisdictional company, you may need someone on call 24/7 to respond to followers in Australia or the Far East. With different regulatory bodies for each jurisdiction, you might need separate Twitter accounts for each area.”

companies to use social media with properly codified regulations. If it’s too unclear they just won’t use it.” The FCA says they don’t want to restrict social media use. At least these standards balance the playing field. Clearly the way to get a competitive edge is to be inventive with your digital storytelling, finding a tone of voice that connects emotionally with your audience. But to get down to brass tacks, these decrees from on high mean further expense, as someone senior needs to manage the approval process – which could make some firms wonder if it’s even worth their time. So where do the Channel Islands’ regulators stand? John Harris, Director-General of the Jersey Financial Services Commission, issued a statement saying: “We have no specific plans to emulate the FCA initiative at this point, but will continue to monitor the position and keep the matter under review.” The Guernsey Financial Services Commission have posted a link to the FCA guidelines on their website. Does the long arm of the FCA reach the Channel Islands? Do they have any jurisdiction at all or is that also under review? Tweet that if you dare. n BEN JORDAN is a freelance writer

THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNSOLICITED PROMOTIONS The FCA imposes strict guidance on ‘unsolicited promotions’, the digital equivalent of cold calling, and it’s announced tough penalties for organisations who don’t play by the rules and misuse social media. These include fines for firms and individuals, suspension from regulated activities and even criminal prosecution. So is this all compliance gone mad? “That is certainly the hype,” says McCabe. “In reality, though, all financial promotions have to comply with the same risk criteria, so it’s in line with standard compliance. But the FCA rules seem to view advertising as a one-way channel, and with social media your promotions are live and engaged with your audience. If a customer has a bad experience they can tweet and tag your company. The FCA hasn’t given guidance on negative engagement, and I’d like to see how companies respond to that.” There’s a lot to be said for being circumspect, but is there a danger that firms will become over-anxious about social media? “I want to encourage local firms to be up to speed with the guidance notes. It could make some overly cautious in the approval process, but it might also encourage firms who have been cautious to learn to use social media with confidence,” says Riddell. Some specialists fear that compliance will undermine creativity. “There’s no doubt that the FCA have stifled the free-form spirit and speed of social media,” says Falla. “The fear is we’ll all be reading tweets written by lawyers. At least the FCA rules allow finance

TIPS AND TRICKS The new FCA rules might have sharpened the knife-edge firms walk on, but there are some social media ‘hacks’ that safely comply with FCA rules. Investment marketing expert Jenna McCabe at Quilter Cheviot offers these tips: ● Link to websites with full articles and full disclaimers; ● Use imagery/infographics with embedded disclaimers. There’s no hard limit to wording within an image, provided your compliance department is happy with what it says and the regulatory information it gives; ● Use questions in your posts to create intrigue and discussion. That way you’re triggering thoughts, not giving answers; ● Follow relevant people and companies. It’s about quality not quantity – you’ll be associated with the company you keep; ● Have a good disaster-recovery plan and someone with experience monitoring notifications from your various accounts; ● Work with your compliance team closely – social media is instant and responses need to be quick. You’ll need compliance on side to help with this.

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The Waterfox wunderkind

Words: Jack Flanagan

Alex Kontos has taken on the internet browser behemoths with the creation of Waterfox – and he’s eschewed Silicon valley to establish his company in Jersey AMONG MODERN FAIRY tales – the personal assistant

who becomes the global brand, the single mother who writes a bestselling series of novels – it is the child who, by toying with lines of code, starts his own successful company and becomes a business leader, which is perhaps one of the most inspiring. Alex Kontos was one such child. At just 12, he tentatively began to experiment with programming, inventing small games and apps. By the time he was 16, however, his hobby had graduated into an obsession and he crafted an advanced web browser. He dubbed it ‘Waterfox’ – presumably in elemental opposition to Mozilla’s popular internet browser, Firefox. “It started out as a hobby, but gradually I got more and more into it,” Kontos, now 20, says of Waterfox. “The web was new to me, and I was interested in building my own computers. I especially wanted to learn how to make computers run faster. Then I discovered that the software we use has a long way to go before it can make use of all the hardware that is available to it. That’s when I found out about 34-bit computers, source code and the potential for faster versions of Firefox.” Kontos developed Waterfox with the aid of an online community, and after some initial work the project began to develop with the encouragement of those who valued high speed and efficiency in a way that mirrored his own. “I posted it on an online forum, basically saying: ‘check what I made and let me know what you think’. People were amazed that there was someone who was building this. It made it so that every time Firefox released an update, I had to release one too.” It was Kontos’s father, himself a programmer, who encouraged his son’s early interest in programming. But it’s still a leap from a ‘pet project’ to conceiving the browser as a business. Last year in March, Kontos attended Pitch@Palace – a regular event created by HRH The Duke of York

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to recognise the best digital startups – as both a coder and a businessman. Kontos, encouraged by the careers team at the University of York, where he studies Electronic Engineering, won the Duke of York Young Entrepreneur Award. But the event provided him with far more than simple prestige. At the event Kontos met Andrew Crossland, a veteran digital entrepreneur. According to Kevin Taylor, a close colleague and now the CEO of Waterfox’s managing company Storm Technologies, Crossland was immediately attracted to both the idea of a new, competitive browser, and its savvy entrepreneur. “It was obvious that here we had a very clear guy. The pitch was very convincing, and showed a very competent and capable entrepreneur,” says Taylor. “Often in these pitches, you see the entrepreneurs overwork and try too hard to apply a gloss to their product, when really investors want to see what’s underneath. In Alex’s case, the gloss wasn’t there, and Crossland saw what he wanted to see.”

FROM DREAM TO REALITY Crossland and Kontos immediately began plotting a business course for Waterfox. At the time of the pitch, Kontos’s platform had three million downloads, with users in 180 countries out of a possible 194. Kontos remembers the initial conversation about turning Waterfox into a business as a nervous one. “I was a bit cautious, a bit suspicious – it was all a bit too good to be true. But the more I sat down, the more I saw the infrastructure [around Waterfox] that they were building.” Crossland, Taylor and a new team had to first solve the problem of monetising the browser. They created a project – a search engine, Storm – and created a space within the business in which Waterfox and Storm could affiliate with charities. These charity partners can utilise the browser with their own branding – ‘white

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Technology

labelling’ the browser. If the browser makes the charities money, through e-commerce purchases, for example, Waterfox can then claim money out of the affiliate relationship. This isn’t an innovation in-and-of itself – e-commerce platforms rely on browser technology and are used to such affiliate charges. With that problem effectively resolved, the company picked Jersey as its base. This was for a number of reasons, not least that Crossland himself has lived in Jersey and has family on the island. Government sponsorship through Digital Jersey is consistently bringing new investment into the area, and this also factored in the decision. Taylor says: “There’s a ready-made community in Jersey for businesses of our current scale and ambition. We’re developing a two-pronged approach: the right environment, as in responsible government officials with whom we have close contact [through Andrew Crossland]; and the Jersey economy, which brings us closer to the machinery than we would be in, say, London. “Plus, Digital Jersey is bringing investment into Jersey and the digital sector, which is very dynamic, and it’s more likely to bring us the right connections and investment.” Waterfox is still setting up in Jersey, with just six full-time staff. Despite this, Taylor’s confident the business will retain its global focus. It needs to – they’re in a competitive industry dominated by just a few large brands, two of them monolithic, though by no means with faultless reputations. But there is a sense, even over the phone, of Taylor rubbing his hands together at the thought of the challenge and rewards ahead for this most promising of start-ups. Kontos, more modestly, has to finish his degree first – he’s in his final year. “It’s been great, I’ve learned a lot here – although, obviously, this last year has been really hectic.” How will his story develop? In describing his ambitions, Kontos reveals himself to be the idealist one hopes he would be. “I’d like to be a figurehead for increased freedom and better legislation on the web, including discussing privacy issues and getting user opinions heard… and make a difference. I suppose that’s what everyone wants to do, but it’ll be a great path to follow.” n

I’d like to be a figurehead for increased freedom and better legislation on the web

JACK FLANAGAN is a freelance technology writer

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Technology

We’ve moved from passwords and PINs to fingerprints and beyond. but what next? will you be identified in the future by veins in your finger and your own tears?

Identify yourself! Words: Dave Waller

demise of the password for online transactions. And many were happy to hear it, given Gates’ track record for envisioning other tech developments (in 1999 he foresaw Facebook, smartphones and tailored online ads, to name just a few). It’s taken longer than Gates suggested, but there may now be good news for anyone who’s ever torn out their hair trying to remember long strings of letters and numbers – or for that matter their PIN, or where they put that little calculator gizmo the bank gives you for online transactions. Thanks to changing consumer habits, the world of identification is increasingly about balancing security with convenience. We used to sit at home to do online banking, but these days we may be sat on a bus on our

mobile. And, of course, the criminal fraternity has become better at nicking our information, increasing the need for more secure and unique methods of identification. Now developments in biometrics are sparking a new wave of technology that purports to allow you to operate on the web and in the real world securely without causing any headaches. So just what are the latest developments in identification and how soon will you find yourself using them?

▼

BACK IN 2004 Bill Gates predicted the imminent

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fingopay ‘reads’ your finger, figures out what debit card it’s synched to and takes the payment. Crucially it only works when your finger is still attached to your hand

VOICE RECOGNITION

Barclays is experimenting with voice recognition, which it’s rolling out across its retail banking call centres. “Call once and give us your details and we’ll be able to recognise you next time,” says Michael Mueller, Head of Cash Management at Barclays. “Importantly, we’ll be able to recognise if someone is pretending to be you.” The technology hinges on developments in machine learning, where computers can learn and spot patterns and see how each new case then varies from this norm. According to US voice-recognition pioneer Nuance, voice biometrics is being used by one major financial institution to analyse contact with the call centre and compare the callers’ voices to known fraudsters’ voices from previous calls. It states that the organisation has seen ‘a 59 per cent decrease in account takeovers and over $1 million in prevented fraud loss’. There are, however, doubts about its practicality. “You need to talk for quite a bit of time before the machine knows it’s you,” says Nick Dryden, Founder of Sthaler.

FINGER-VEIN TECH

Image: Sthaler

FingoPay is a pay-by-finger system developed by tech firm Sthaler – it allows shoppers to pay for goods by sticking their finger in a scanner. This ‘reads’ your finger, figures out what debit card it’s synched to and takes the payment. Crucially it only works when your finger is still attached to your hand. The reason for this is that FingoPay relies on Finger Vein Authentication Technology (VeinID), a system designed by Hitachi, whose developers discovered that vein patterns in fingers are unique to the individual and built a system that takes a snapshot of these patterns using infrared light. Hitachi’s technology is already being used in 80 per cent of ATMs in Japan, as well as in Turkey and Poland. Barclays is rolling out fingervein authentication for its UK business customers this year. “It’s interesting technology because it’s both very secure and convenient,” says Barclays’ Mueller. “You do need a special device for finger-vein scanning, but you can’t spoof the result – nobody can replicate the blood flow in your finger.”

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Technology

A LITTLE MORE LEFT FIELD…

There are a number of developments that, on the surface, seem far more futuristic (and perhaps unrealistic), but may well be just around the corner. Take Toronto-based Bionym, for instance, which is developing a wristband that verifies identity based on the electrical pulses of the user’s heartbeat. Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer of the iPhone and iPad, recently paid $2 million for a 10 per cent stake in AirSig, a Taiwanese company that uses smartphones’ built-in gyroscopes to track ‘air handwriting’. There’s even work going into identifying you by your gait, as measured by wearable technology or a smartphone moving in your pocket. The benefit here is that you don’t have to do anything different for the computer to verify you. The same goes for identifying you by your ears. The Ergo Android app by Descartes Biometrics maps the points where the ear makes contact with the phone’s touch screen, and compares it to a stored image of the ear. Limited to unlocking phones for now, it could come into play when paying for apps or signing into platforms. Finally, someone’s even found a positive use for crying. Stephen Mason, the Australian optometrist behind Wavefront Biometric Technologies, has developed a system that can spot a user from the pattern of the tears on their cornea. Crucially this pattern will be slightly different each time, and the computer allows for this – making it impossible to successfully clone. Mason describes the technology, not yet commercially available, as a “natural one-time PIN”.

Every user interacts with a site or mobile in their own individual way. Google is betting its chips on these idiosyncrasies and has developed Project Abacus, which can learn your habits – say how fast you go from one word to the next when typing on a keyboard, or how fast you swipe on a mobile screen – and use them to tell whether you are who you claim to be. Having trialled Abacus at 33 US universities, Google reckons the technology is 10 times more secure than fingerprints. The obvious bonus of a behavioural system is that it requires no camera or external scanner. “It’s a nice intriguing sweet-spot to add this layer, and so give added security without increasing the cost of hardware, or the inconvenience to the user,” says Neil Costigan, CEO of Swedish behavioural firm BehavioSec. “You want to avoid anything that takes time or uses precious screen real estate, and this technology is all at the back end, not in front of the user.” BehavioSec’s technology is already a fixture of online and mobile banking in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and the company is now expanding internationally.

Image: maxpro / Shutterstock.com

BEHAVIOUR MAPPING

WILL THE PASSWORD/PIN EVER DIE? Each biometric solution hinges on the philosophy that the best way to prove you are who you say you are is to simply be yourself, and let the system work out that it’s you. Yet this falls apart if the technology is susceptible to false match rates – false negatives mean you have to repeat an action several times because the machine doesn’t believe you are who you say you are; false positives mean it will sometimes identify someone else as you. Both of these are significant failings, which is why many experts still tout the need for multi-factor authentication – to back up biometrics (something you are), with something you have (your phone or your online banking calculator) or something you know. And yes, that means we’re back to dreaded passwords and PINs. “Biometric security systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated,” says Tyler Moffitt, Senior Threat Research Analyst at security software firm Webroot. “But they should never be used as the single factor for authentication. Two-factor authentication, where the user has access to two individually secure methods of authentication, is still the best option for device-level and payment security.” n DAVE WALLER is a freelance business writer

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Technology

Technology in all its guises is inarguably male-dominated, and attempts to increase the number of women at all levels struggle to gain traction. As it has been, will it always be?

Do we want to live in a world ruled by

NerDS?

Words: Kirsten Morel

Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Jimmy Wales – just a few of the most famous names in the technology industry. They have all founded businesses that have in some way changed the world – and, in case you hadn’t noticed, they are also all men. Now, it’s not their fault – that’s just the way they were made. What is concerning, though, is that in spite of the enormous and rapid global growth of digital technology and its acquisition of billions of users, today, 15 years into the millennium, there are still incredibly few women working in the sector. In a study published in June, Google revealed that just 18 per cent of its tech staff worldwide are women – still, it’s slightly higher than the reported 15.75 per cent that are found throughout some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies. Tracey Chou, a Software Engineer at Pinterest, compiled the statistics that led to the 15.75 per cent figure. She had to do it on her own because, according to Chou, in an article for Medium, the industry doesn’t collect these figures itself. “While companies do talk about their initiatives to make the work

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BILL GATES, STEVE Wozniak, Mark

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environment more female-friendly, or to encourage more women to go into or stay in computing, there’s no way of judging whether they’re successful or worth mimicking, because there are no success metrics attached to any of them,” she said. Chou’s conclusion is that if you don’t acknowledge the problem, you can’t solve it. One thing is for sure, though. While there are plenty of women in technology companies, including high-profile leaders such as Yahoo’s President and CEO Marissa Mayer and Facebook’s COO Cheryl Sandberg, they tend not to be at the front end of technology development. Instead they find themselves in the business development, marketing, finance and human resources departments. Dr Diana Bilimoria, Chair of the Department of Organisational Behaviour at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, offers a simple and stark reason for this lack of gender equality in technology: “The culture and environment are perceived to be inhospitable and unfriendly towards women.”

GENDER DIVIDE No episode showed this more clearly than the unfortunately notorious GamerGate, a deeply misogynistic social media campaign that targeted women in the male-dominated games development industry. Male gamers and games developers attacked women that they saw as having too much influence in

the industry, in concerted attempts to keep gaming as an exclusively male preserve. If ever there was a single event that confirmed people’s prejudices about nerds being sociopaths then GamerGate is it. The personal abuse and lack of empathy that characterised the whole sad story showed that there are groups within the technology sector who want to control the industry and keep it as a place exclusively for men. Regardless of how a group of gamers feels about women, to ignore female input into the running of companies and the design of tech products is shortsighted in the extreme. Women are more prolific users of technology, using the internet 17 per cent more than men. They are the fastest growing user group on every social network except LinkedIn. Crucially, it’s not just as consumers that women surpass men. Studies have shown that technology companies led by women are more capital-efficient, make a 35 per cent higher return on investment, and, when venture-backed, bring in 12 per cent higher revenue than male-owned competitors. Quite simply, any technology business that entrusts its products to a socially challenged group of men is going to run into trouble – yet still the tech sector is consistently failing to encourage female participation. Bilimoria points to unconscious behaviour among those established in the industry as one reason for this exclusion. “First-generation bias is the active exclusion of women, but this has become minimised in many science careers. More subtle is the second-generation bias – the invisible and unacknowledged barriers to women entering the sector.” Examples of such unconscious activity include “a lack of role models for women, or being left out of networks that provide information”.

EDUCATIONAL FAILURE

If ever there was a single event that confirmed people’s prejudices about nerds being sociopaths then Gamergate is it

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This lack of role models is part of a vicious circle that is proving difficult to break, because unless women move into the industry, those desperately needed role models will, of course, never exist. “We need to encourage digital role models,” says Gwyn Garfield-Bennett, Founder of Jersey Coders,

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Technology

a coding club for teenagers. “We struggle to get girls to join Jersey Coders. Some suggest girls-only groups, but I think this is the wrong approach because it doesn’t reflect the reality of the workplace. “A lot of boys join because they come to us through gaming, but we find that a lot of girls are put off because they think of maths and don’t like the way it’s taught at school.” The belief that women are being failed by the education system when it comes to teaching STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is shared by Mark Loane, CEO of C5 Alliance Group, who has seen the problem first-hand. “The imbalance in STEM goes all the way back to education. At a school visit recently, I asked the students what their passions were. Most of the girls were interested in art, design and other creative subjects. Only one was interested in gaming. It comes down to the fact that girls don’t seem to get into technology learning and don’t see it as a career path.” One of the reasons for this is that schools teach STEM subjects in a theoretical way, rather than applying them to real-life situations. This is a good example of the unconscious barriers that halt women’s progress, yet something as simple as changing the teaching style can encourage women to engage. “One engineering school saw women as not seeing the relevance, so they made science and engineering teaching relevant to real-life problems. Women are concerned about social responsibility and interested in improving people’s lives,” says Bilimoria.

NEED FOR NEW THINKING While the education system may be failing women, the technology industry itself is structured in such a way as to make it difficult for women to see a long-term career path in the industry. This ‘leaky pipe’ phenomenon means that the few women who do become technologists often leave early because their life choices appear to be incompatible with their careers. “Technology careers demand a lot of qualifications and trying to get these when working around a family is difficult,” explains Jo Cox, Chief Commercial Officer at Channel Islands telco Sure. As a company, 24 per cent of Sure’s staff are female, which is quite high for a technology firm. But drill down into the figures and you’ll find there are no women in engineering. Instead, they’re found in customer services, marketing and so on. To address this, Sure is looking to engage women at senior levels in the belief that this will create role models and inspire other women. “I think the more women you get into senior management, the more it will encourage other women to join technology companies,” says Cox. “Our board is pretty much a 50/50 split and I think that encourages women to come into the industry.” Similarly, at C5 Alliance, Mark Loane has purposefully appointed a female director to the board. “We needed

a different perspective,” he explains. “I biased the selection because I wanted more soft skills in the boardroom, which has a very male, ‘techy’ perspective. The lack of a wider perspective is a loss.” Despite the statistics showing that having women on board is better both culturally and financially, the male bias is still going strong – partly because the Mark Zuckerbergs and Bill Gateses of this world have, unintentionally, created a cultural stereotype of the successful tech entrepreneur – the male nerd. The result is that just three per cent of technology companies are founded by women and only seven per cent of venture capital funding goes to women-led companies – and let’s face it, most venture capital firms are run by men who are looking to fund winning ideas and companies. Sadly, that means they’re looking for more Zuckerbergs – a template of course, that women just don’t fit. Looking ahead, it would be good to think that the reign of the tech nerd is dead, but unfortunately, we’re already going backwards. “The shocking thing is that the number of women [in technology] has gone down, not up,” says GarfieldBennett. The danger for western countries is that they will lose ground as other nations successfully avoid the gender trap. “We will start falling behind as countries like India get more women into technology.” Perhaps the harsh reality is that an industry that started off so heavily biased towards men will only ever move so far to include women, and no further. Which only begs the question: how much better could the tech industry be if things were otherwise? n KIRSTEN MOREL is BL’s Technology Editor

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A BL event

GUERNSEY TRUSTS CONFERENCE 2015

A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM Are regulation, consolidation, operational challenges and external demands putting the traditional trust model at risk?

Delegate rates from ÂŁ320 Five hours CPD available For more information and to book your place, visit www.blglobal.co.uk/events or email events@blglobal.co.uk In partnership with:

Wednesday 11 November Duke of Richmond, St Peter Port 9am - 3.15pm

Supported by:

BL guernsey Guernsey releases Tourism Strategic Plan

BL Guernsey

Guernsey Business Trends Survey results published

• Strengthen the islands’ unique product offering. The document covers the main challenges facing the industry and also identifies 22 action plans that, with public and private investment and focus, will help to deliver 30 per cent growth in the sector’s economic contribution over the next 10 years. Luke Wheadon, Chairman of the Hospitality and Tourism sub group, said: “The plan has challenging yet achievable targets, and importantly illustrates the desire for both industry and government to work closely together to achieve their common aims.” Tourism is a vital industry for Guernsey’s economy, accounting for approaching five per cent of GDP (direct and indirect spend), and roughly eight per cent of employment. According to the most recent figures, Guernsey has seen an increase in the number of people staying in the island. There’s been a 7.3 per cent rise in staying-visitor numbers in Q1 2015, compared to the first quarter of last year. n

Respondents were also asked how they think Guernsey should deal with the budget deficit from a variety of options – the most popular was further controls on States departmental spending, which was selected by 84 per cent of respondents. The full survey results can be found on the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce website. n

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Image: Kiev.Victor / Shutterstock.com

Locate Guernsey to receive £1.2 million

he States of Guernsey has announced that it will spend £1.2 million on attracting high-net-worth individuals to relocate to Guernsey. The funding has been secured by the Commerce and Employment Department to set up its ‘Locate Guernsey’ scheme, which it is hoped will emulate some of the success enjoyed by Locate Jersey, which was set up in 2010. The money will be used over a three-year period to promote the island as a home for wealthy individuals. It’s hoped they’ll bring their business interests with them to boost the economy. It’s also hoped that the initiative will pay for itself within two years and will quickly become an income generator for the government, with even greater returns for many parts of the wider economy. Commenting on the announcement, Deputy Kevin Stewart, Commerce and Employment Department Minister, told ITV News: “This is a really exciting development, and the support from the Policy Council and Treasury & Resources shows that the States of Guernsey is fully committed to this initiative. “The creation of Locate Guernsey, alongside that of the Guernsey Digital Greenhouse, shows that the States is determined to be proactive in terms of business generation. We’ve had great support for the concept from stakeholders in industry, and are very much looking forward to working together with them, which we regard as key to the success of the venture.” n

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Alderney’s population decline continues

he population of the third-largest Channel Island has dropped by nearly 300 in 13 years. Alderney’s population continues to fall steadily, according to data from the island’s electronic census. The population was 2,013 at the end of March 2014, based on information collated from 10 States of Guernsey databases, including social security. The data shows the population has fallen steadily from 2,217 in 2007. An Alderney States spokesman said future census reports would include economic and employment data, which would inform decisions. Other key figures from the electronic census statistics, March 2014, are: • 1,168 (58 per cent) of the population are of working age (16-64); • The dependency ratio rose to 0.72, which means that for every 100 people of working age there are 72 people of dependent age (over 64 or under 16); • 42.9 per cent of the population have lived in the island for 20 years or more;

•5 5.3 per cent of the population live in property they own, compared to 31.2 per cent who live in rented accommodation; •1 5 per cent of the island’s domestic properties were owned by people whose primary dwelling was not in Alderney. Victor Brownlees, States of Alderney’s Chief Executive, said: “[The electronic census is] an extremely valuable resource, which gives a clear and up-to-date picture of trends almost in real time, which is something we could never get from a traditional census.” n

Stable picture for Guernsey bank deposits

ew figures from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, show that the value of deposits held by banks in Guernsey fell by £254 million (0.3 per cent) during the first quarter of 2015. However, this marginal decrease followed two consecutive quarterly increases at the end of 2014. Banking deposits reached £83.4bn at the end of March 2015, representing a rise of £1.4bn (1.7 per cent) during the year. Commenting on the figures, Dominic Wheatley, Chief Executive of Guernsey Finance, said: “The island’s position as a leading international finance centre is underpinned by its banking sector, and so it’s pleasing to see the ongoing strength in deposits during the last few quarters.” n

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BL Guernsey

Funding agreed Guernsey Funds Forum for Guernsey draws huge crowd Digital M Greenhouse

he Commerce and Employment Department at the States of Guernsey has announced that £1.45 million in funding for the Guernsey Digital Greenhouse project has now been agreed by the Treasury and Resources Department. This means that the Department is now able to grow the project, with the aim to open for business later this summer. Commerce and Employment Minister Deputy Kevin Stewart said: “This is extremely good news for Guernsey, and I’m very pleased to see the exciting plans become reality. This investment shows the faith and confidence that the Guernsey government has in the development of the technological and creative sectors in Guernsey, and the necessity to develop digital skills and capabilities across a range of users in the island.” While waiting for the funding to be agreed, much work has been done with industry and community contacts to develop the Guernsey Digital Greenhouse concept so that the Department was ready to progress the project quickly when funding was released. The States says this work will continue apace so the Guernsey Digital Greenhouse can be opened at the earliest opportunity. Mike Culverwell, Implementation and Business Development Director for the Guernsey Digital Greenhouse, commented: “The Guernsey Digital Greenhouse will act as a centre of focus for the digital and creative community in Guernsey, and will enable skills, knowledge and experiences to be shared and developed. It will be essential for development of the digital and creative economy in Guernsey, but also provide opportunities for all islanders to improve their knowledge and use of digital technology. These are very exciting times for Guernsey.” The States expects a further announcement on the location of the Digital Greenhouse and plans for a phased roll out to be made shortly. n

ore than 500 people attended the Guernsey Funds Forum 2015 held at the new etc.venues, 155 Bishopsgate, London, in May. The Forum was hosted by ITV news anchor Alastair Stewart, and the keynote speech was delivered by Guernsey resident and private equity specialist Guy Hands, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Terra Firma Capital Partners. Dominic Wheatley, Chief Executive of Guernsey Finance, said he was delighted with the event. “[It] allows us to reinforce and build upon our key relationship with the City of London, so to have attracted such an impressive number of delegates is hugely encouraging for the funds industry in Guernsey,” he said. “It was fascinating to listen to Guy – a highly respected individual in the investment community and a long-time supporter of Guernsey’s fund industry – give the audience a real insight into his view of the future for private equity. His call for a return to the traditional values of private equity resonated with many in the hall. The panel sessions that followed Guy were equally compelling and allowed

for a really informative debate between the speakers and delegates.” The event included two panel sessions. The first looked at meeting the needs of European private equity and included a focus on BEPS, manager experiences of private placement under AIFMD and the latest on AIFMD passporting. Panellists comprised Emma Bailey from the GFSC, James Gee from Weil, Tim Hames from the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA), Robert Mellor from PwC, and Karen Sands from Hermes GPE. The second session looked at the future of investment entities, and comprised Ravi Anand of Dexion Capital, Tom Attenborough from the London Stock Exchange, Peter Denton from Starwood Capital Europe Advisers, Erik Jamieson from Hogan Lovells, and Ian Sayers from the Association of Investment Companies. The event, hosted by Guernsey Finance in conjunction with the Guernsey Investment Fund Association, was supported by the Alternative Investment Management Association, BVCA, Global Custodian, HFM Week, PERE and unquote”. n

Guernsey funds facilitate £25bn of investment in UK

‘I

nternational Capital Flows’, a report commissioned by the States of Guernsey and supported by Guernsey Finance, has analysed the economic benefits provided to the UK and Europe by the Guernsey funds market. The report concludes that the Guernsey funds industry acts as a conduit for £24.6bn of inward investment into the UK from global investors. The figure for inward investment into Europe is more than double this, at £54.1bn. The majority of the inward investment is deployed into long-term tangible assets, including private equity, infrastructure and

commercial property. All of these asset classes can provide economic and social benefits to the UK. The report also estimates that European investment managers earn £1.8bn in fees from managing Guernsey funds, of which £1.1bn is earned by those in the UK. UK investors, such as pension funds, also benefit from using Guernsey, as it gives them a far wider access to investment opportunities outside Europe. The report concludes that Guernsey brings together investors from many different countries and facilitates their access to global assets. n

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BL Jersey

BL jersey States of Jersey Financial Report and Accounts 2014 released

these challenges, we still have a strong balance sheet and options to address future funding pressures. But we must make the changes necessary to the public sector structure and the way we manage our finances if we are to ensure that this continues to be the case.” n

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he States of Jersey Financial Report and Accounts 2014 were released at the beginning of June by the Treasury and Resources Minister. The highlights were: • A strong balance sheet: the balance sheet grew further in 2014 with an increase in net asset balance of £73 million to £5.7bn, largely as a result of investment returns; • General revenue income was maintained despite challenging circumstances but was less than originally forecast; • Capital expenditure: departments, trading operations and Andium Homes spent a total of £75 million in 2014 compared to £52 million in the previous year. The strength of the balance sheet not only allowed for capital expenditure to grow, but also enabled vital spending on healthcare and investment in support of the economy and jobs to be maintained; • Investment returns: special funds saw strong returns on their investments, with the strategic reserve increasing by £44 million to £787 million, and the Social Security reserve fund by £95 million to £1.25bn; • Public bond: a £250 million public bond was issued in 2014 to fund vital investment in social and affordable housing – largely through Andium Homes. To support this, Jersey was accredited with an international credit rating of AA+ with a stable outlook and this has been maintained into 2015; • An operating deficit of £25 million was recorded as States departmental spending exceeded States’ General Revenues Income. Treasury and Resources Minister Senator Alan Maclean said: “Like many other governments, our revenue expectations were lower than forecast in 2014. Despite

New bulletin board for Jersey’s tech community

Carlisle to speak at Jersey event

former professional footballer who has fought a very public battle with depression will be the keynote speaker at a major conference on mental health in Jersey later this year. Clarke Carlisle, a defender who played for a number of top-flight clubs and was Chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association, will address the Jersey Employment Trust’s ‘Able to Work’ conference on 8 October. The JET is a charitable trust that assists people with a disability and/or long-term health condition to find open employment. The focus of the biennial conference, which is being held in partnership with Mind Jersey and sponsored by RBC Wealth Management, will be ‘Managing Wellbeing and Mental Health in the Workplace’. Mental health is a subject that Carlisle can speak about from very personal experience. Last December, he was hit by a truck in North Yorkshire and airlifted to hospital with serious injuries. In February this year, he admitted that it was an attempted suicide. “I still bear the scars from my battle with mental health. I kept my depression a secret from clubs and teammates for almost two decades and it almost cost me my life,” Carlisle said. “But my suicide attempt in December was a turning point and really opened my eyes. I now feel blessed to be alive and I want to do all I can to raise awareness of the importance of mental health.” For more information on the conference email margaret.ramage@jet.co.je If you’re struggling to cope, you can call Samaritans on 08457 909090 any time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year n

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Stable Q1 for finance industry

he latest figures released by the JFSC on Jersey’s finance industry show a steady performance in Q1 this year, including a small rise in banking deposits and signs that a change to fund regulation will support certain types of new funds business. Banking deposits have reached their highest level since last summer, and while there was a small fall in the value of funds, this followed a period of consistent growth each quarter, so overall the economic picture is stable. Headline figures include: • The total value of banking deposits held in Jersey increased by £4.9bn to £137.3bn • The net asset value of regulated funds under administration decreased by £1.9bn to £227bn • The total number of regulated collective investment funds decreased by one to 1,322, while at the end of Q1 there were 125 active unregulated funds • The total value of funds under investment management rose slightly to £20.9bn. These figures don’t include the total assets under management in the qualifying segregated managed accounts (QSMA) regime, which stood at £1.9bn. (It’s the first time the JFSC has collated data relating to QSMA, which would otherwise have been included here.) • The total number of live companies on the register stood at 32,861. n

Jersey retains AA+ rating

he States of Jersey’s international credit rating issued by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has been affirmed as ‘AA+/A-1 + long and short-term sovereign credit rating, with a stable outlook’. The AA+ credit rating was first assigned in November 2013 enabling the States to proceed with the £250 million bond earmarked to provide investment in affordable housing over the following 10 years. The rating is one of the best that the credit ratings service awards. In its report, S&P noted: ‘The AA+ ratings on Jersey reflect our view of its mature political and institutional setting, transparent economic decisionmaking process, wealthy economy and significant fiscal flexibility supported by a high-net general government asset position.’ n

Praise from OECD at Jersey conference

ersey’s positive role in helping to drive forward and shape the international transparency landscape has been praised by a senior OECD tax expert at this year’s Jersey Finance Annual London Private Client Conference. At the event, entitled ‘Mapping the Future’, Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration addressed an audience of more than 400 senior private client tax, trust and wealth management professionals, and highlighted the “tremendous job Jersey has done contributing to the international tax agenda”. Emphasising the complexities for jurisdictions and firms operating now, with multiple models in place for information exchange, he added: “It is important to recognise the role of small jurisdictions in the work we are doing. We aim to deliver a level playing field for all jurisdictions and Jersey was one of the best and first in grabbing this opportunity to shape the agenda.” n

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BL Jersey

Jersey air and sea ports merge

ersey’s air and sea ports are to become part of one government-owned company, following a vote in the States. The move will allow all ports to operate as one unified business while remaining under the ownership of the States. It’s hoped the new set-up will allow decisions to be made more quickly without needing to be passed through the States, and that this will help business. The incorporation follows a route already used when telecommunications firm JT was made a company, rather than government department. Ports of Jersey Ltd will maintain the harbours and airport, with about £420 million of infrastructure costs over 25 years. Treasury Minister Senator Alan Maclean said the move would give the States more commercial freedom. He told the BBC: “Self-sustainability through incorporation will free the ports from the shackles of government, and enable them to grasp opportunities and deliver new income streams.” The new company is expected to return profits worth £35 million to the States over 25 years. n

C5 launch Jersey’s first fintech lab

he C5 Alliance Group has launched a new initiative based in Jersey, which will be solely focused on creating fintech products. The C5 Jersey FinTech Lab will create an environment where C5 can work with entrepreneurs and other businesses that have a financial services product that requires technical development and marketing. This new lab will work with businesses on a case-by-case basis, building a bespoke team for them that includes strategic support, developers, project managers, office space, marketing and initial seed capital in exchange for a percentage of equity. The C5 Jersey FinTech Lab will support new product development, product migration, re-engineering, product maintenance and enhancement, testing, mobile enablement, system deployment and, finally, getting the product to market. Mark Loane, CEO of C5, commented: “There are huge opportunities within the fintech sector at the moment, which the excellent work of Digital Jersey has helped bring to light. As an industry we now have a unique opportunity to leverage our understanding of the financial sector and global regulation to create world-class products... We want to use Jersey’s homegrown talent and skills to support local entrepreneurship in the area, and also to develop an export capability. We will also be looking at a similar initiative in Guernsey at a later stage.” Optics Analytics, the first product developed by C5 Jersey FinTech Lab, is a new type of portfolio management system, and will launch later this year. n

New President at Jersey Chamber of Commerce

ristina Le Feuvre has been appointed as President of the Jersey Chamber of Commerce, having been voted in at the recent annual general meeting. Kristina, who runs the aMaizin! Adventure Park in St Peter with her husband, Carlton, will serve a twoyear term of office. She is the first female President in the Chamber’s near-250-year history, and takes over the role from James Filleul. Prior to setting up the aMaizin! Adventure Park business in 2001, Kristina worked in the financial services industry for 10 years in senior management roles. Speaking at the AGM, she said that with “some difficult decisions” to be faced over the next few years, the Chamber’s hundred or so committee members would need to commit to working together. “Jersey is going through a difficult time, and there are some difficult decisions to be faced,” she said. “We need to ensure that the Chamber plays a vital role.” n

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We think the best person to pick the offers for you is you So we’ve created Pick Your Own Offers for our myWaitrose members. Just visit waitrose.com, pick your ten favourites from hundreds of products and save 20% on them every time you shop in store or online.

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THE AGENDA

2. LIFE CYCLE With more than 10 of the globe’s most desirable brands as partners, urban transport specialist Tern has created two limited-edition folding bicycles for Ecocycle, a new brand initiative championed by The Coca-Cola Company and global music artist and entrepreneur will.i.am. The entire Ecocycle collection is exclusively available at a shop-within-a-shop in Harrods. The Tern bikes feature hydroformed frames made from a minimum of 10 per cent recycled aluminium. Other components include rims made by a factory that is totally solar powered and virtually grid neutral. The bikes fold in under 10 seconds, and the limited edition Verge X20, pictured here, includes lights powered by a dynamo hub that generates its own electricity while riding. Alongside the bikes, there are more than 150 other lifestyle products available, with everything from jazzy casual clothing, accessories and luggage, to shoes and neckwear – and there’s even a very dapper Ecocycle skinny-fit tuxedo jacket. It’s all about helping consumers understand that rubbish can actually be a valuable resource in creating desirable lifestyle goods. As the old saying goes, waste not, want not. £3,195, www.harrods.com

3. TAKE IT OUTSIDE Glyndebourne or Glastonbury, Hyde Park or Hampstead Heath, grooving at Jersey Live or making do with a small patch of parched grass at Lovebox in east London’s Victoria Park. Summer is all about picnics, but if you’re going to eat al fresco, why not do it in style? Launched this summer, the Galloway picnic hamper by The Gourmet Trotter Company is the ultimate mobile picnic hamper on wheels, and an innovative and stylish solution to the age-old problem of having to hump a heavy and cumbersome hamper to the perfect picnic spot. The golf-trolley-inspired invention comprises three detachable modules, with each cleverly designed to accommodate designer glassware, cutlery and fine English china. There’s also generous storage space and stainless steel containers for your feast, as well as cutting boards, salt and pepper mills, a corkscrew and linen napkins. The exterior is in vibrant green British tartan with brass details, and all is exquisitely handfinished. Everything you need for a stylish fête champêtre experience. £599, www.notonthehighstreet.com

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THE AGENDA

4. GET ON THE GOOD FOOT Flat shoes are back in fashion big time. So why not treat your feet and pick up on the summer season’s most comfortable trends? Flats needn’t be boring, as the Ivy Green ballerina pump by award-winning eco-friendly footwear manufacturer Po-Zu proves. The company’s mission is ‘to provide your feet with unique respite from the frantic pace of busy lives, and to halt the damage that modern footwear manufacturing often causes to people and planet’. All materials come from renewable sources and are responsibly harvested. No pesticides, bleaches or toxic dyes are used, and all leather is chromium-free. Launched in 2006 in the back room of a little house in Islington, London, Po-Zu has attracted a massive worldwide customer base. Plus you can feel good that three per cent of all sales income is donated to four environmental charities. £95, www.po-zu.com 5. THE NEW SUPERFOOD The latest superfood powerhouse set to take over from kale, quinoa and blueberries as the trendy new holy grail of healthy eating is seaweed. While most peoples’ only encounter with it is the dried stuff wrapped around sushi or floating around in miso soup, fresh seaweed is delicious and packed with vitamins, calcium, iodine and antioxidants, as well as 46 minerals, 16 amino acids and 11 micronutrients. There are three varieties of edible seaweed: brown, red and green. You can buy most varieties dried, fresh or fresh/frozen. The best destination for high quality produce (including seaweed) and hard-tofind ingredients is the amazing online food emporium, Fine Food Specialist – it’s a haven for daring and curious cooks. Pictured here are just three of the many seaweed products stocked. From top: laitue de mer, or sea lettuce (250g, £14.95); sea spaghetti (1kg, £18.95); and sea grapes (2x25g, £10.95). All are fabulously fresh, highly nutritious and beguilingly delicious. Oh! And by the way, sea grapes make a fantastic caviar substitute as a canapé topping. You’re welcome. www.finefoodspecialist.co.uk

6. COOL CUT On the international fashion stage, Stella McCartney is the undisputed ‘queen of green’. Raised on an organic farm by her father Paul and her animal activist/ photographer mother, Linda, Stella was the first luxury designer to fashionably create and stick with a vegan agenda. Being a strict vegetarian, she never uses leather or fur in her collections. Her design sensibility has always been a visible reflection of her personal ethos. This gorgeous stretch rayon mix bias cut midi dress is discreetly figure hugging and has a gloriously swishy asymmetric skirt. The perfect frock to keep cool in during the (fingers crossed) long, hot summer. Style this mint-coloured piece with unfussy but bold accessories and simple Grecian-style sandals. £1,095, www.harveynichols.com

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7 7. SO FRESH Launched in 1992, Eau Parfumée au thé vert was Italian luxury goods brand Bulgari’s very first unisex fragrance. In delicate shades of green, the bottle’s pure shape and sleek lines evoke the freshness and vitality of the scent within. In line with current eco-aware trends within the cosmetic market, the formula doesn’t contain lanolin or active ingredients of animal origin. When first applied, the scent immediately releases top notes of citrus, jasmine, rose, orange blossom and Italian bergamot, then slowly unveils the base note of soothing green tea. Together the bouquet creates a recognisably floral aroma, which is sweet but not aggressively so. It comes in many sizes as splash or vaporiser, and there is also a special 350ml gift-size bottle with a large silk atomiser. From £38, www.bulgari.com

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8. CITY SLICKER The Ted Baker Global Luxe collection is a new limitededition capsule range of topdrawer premium clothing and accessories that exemplify impeccable quality, classic design and sharp, cuttingedge styling. Carefully crafted using the finest Italian fabrics and world-class tailoring techniques – that could give Savile Row a run for its money – the teal suit shown here exudes modern refinement and that certain je ne sais quoi that makes a man stand out in a crowd. The two-button single-breasted jacket is cut from a sumptuous blend of wool, silk and cashmere for the very finest fit and feel. There are matching trousers and even a matching waistcoat should you want to go for the full city-slickersophisticate style. This truly is masculine modern refinement at its best. Primhil jacket, £895; Primtro trousers, £225; www.tedbaker.com

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9. SO SOLID CRU We’re all used to white, red and rosé wine, writes Peter Dean, but head into Northern Portugal and there’s another colour – green. There’s no wine the locals are more fond of or more defiantly defensive of than their vinho verde. Although a large number of different grapes can be used to make vinho verde, the two main varieties are Alvarinho – related to the popular Albarino of northern Spain – and Loureiro, an aromatic grape that has been used traditionally to make mass-produced wines of little quality. One wine-maker bucking tradition is Pedro Araujo of Quinta do Ameal. When he started making wines he was advised against using Loureiro and warned that the wines, like most vinho verde, would only keep for six months if he was lucky. With his attention to detail and oak-ageing, he’s producing Portugal’s best white wine. Robert Parker recently invited Araujo to show his wines at the Saatchi Gallery alongside the world’s finest, and he now pours 14 year-old Loureiro – something scarcely imagined before. The Portuguese have a habit of keeping their best wines to themselves (in a recent survey the wine trade voted Portugal the world’s most underrated region) and a lot of vinho verde doesn’t cross the border. Thankfully with Quinta do Ameal that’s changing, with this, their Escolha 2011/2012, now available in more than 15 countries worldwide. £21.50. www .highburyvintners .co.uk

THE AGENDA

10. NATURAL GLAM The brilliant House of Hackney’s mission ‘to take the beige out of interiors’ is certainly going well. Harking back to Hollywood’s golden age of decorating, this classic squareshaped tub Montague chair in polished wood makes a fresh and modern statement, with its bold hand-painted monstera deliciosa leaf-print cotton/linen upholstery. The frame is made by the country’s finest furniture makers, and is built to last a lifetime – an heirloom in the making. The co-ordinating hand-painted Tarovine wallpaper further enhances this boldly striking scheme. The gorgeous white porcelain Ananas pineapple lamp is the must-have table lamp of the year, with brass detailing and a striking shade that’s a mad explosion of beautifully rendered palm leaves. It’s all about bringing the outdoors in, for relaxed living with a large charge of glamour. Chair, £3,295; wallpaper, £148 per roll; lamp, £495. www.houseofhackney.com

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11. ELECTRIC DREAM Ever wondered what the automotive equivalent of an iPhone would be? Then look no further than the Tesla Model S. Manufactured in California and funded by the PayPal billionaire Elon Musk, this all-electric five-door coupé is not so much a glance into the future as an actual taste of it. First launched in the States three years ago and now conforming to European specifications, including right-hand drive, there’s a familiarity to its exterior styling, as if it’s an acknowledgement that history still has something to offer to these Silicon Valley upstarts. The cabin, however, is as the designer envisioned it: unfettered and revolutionary. Dials and counters have been replaced with a neat digital instrument binnacle, while a 17” touchscreen becomes the nerve centre for air conditioning, audio, and functions such as regeneration braking, air suspension height, even the charge-port hatch,

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sunroof and demisters. There’s no starter button, either. The car knows the key is on board and activates itself. Rear wheel driven by a 416bhp AC motor, power comes in the form of 85kWh battery, which is good for 250-odd miles between charges. At a 32-amp UK public charging point, the Tesla needs 15 hours for a full charge, or half that at a high-output Tesla home charger. A network of 80kW superchargers are planned, which will pump half a charge in 20 minutes, and a full charge in 70 minutes. Instant torque catapults it from 0-60mph in 4.2 seconds, maxing out at 130mph, all with zero emissions. And apart from any road noise, it does so in complete silence, with every handling confidence of a thoroughbred sports GT. This brilliant technology isn’t particularly cheap, but then again, neither is an iPhone. From £50,000, www.teslamotors.com

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12. FACE OF THE FUTURE There’s something reassuring about things that stay the same. Especially when they’re honed to within a millisecond, contain the latest technology and lead the way as one of the world’s most iconic brands, writes Jeffrey Chinn at Hettich Jewellers. Rolex’s Day-Date Oyster, launched in 1956, has become one of the brand’s most recognisable watches and remains an iconic classic today. It was the first watch of its kind to spell out the day and date on its dial, and throughout its life has only been available in yellow, white or rose gold. The model was dubbed the Oyster for its ability to clamp shut like an oyster shell, making it one of the only watches to defy the elements, challenge boundaries and change the face of the watchmaking industry so dramatically. Changing faces is something Rolex knows about extremely well, and the iconic DayDate is now available in a range of bright dial colours, designed to be worn with a matching leather strap. From blue and cherry-coloured dials with a white gold case to a chocolate dial with Rolex’s patented everose gold case, and our personal favourite, this striking green dial matched with yellow gold, it’s the perfect way to ensure that this classic watch reflects your character. However colourful that may be... £12,950, www.hettich.co.uk

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15 13 13. POOL COOL What Dior is to haute couture, Vilebrequin is to men’s swimwear. It all started in 1971 when motor-racing fanatic Fred Prysquel had a ringside seat at St Tropez’s fashionable cafe Sénéquier for the early evening quayside fashion promenade. The men’s swimwear on show did not impress, and so Vilebrequin was born. Now, 44 years later, their revolutionary style and bold designs are still spot on. Pictured here, pop art meets Honolulu, scattering a bold logo with vibrant hibiscus floral and exotic green foliage print on the classic Moorea swimsuit, cut for a perfect poolside alternative to all the naff styles around. £195, www.harveynichols.com 14. BANDEAU GOLD Summer is here and it’s time to start planning your holiday wardrobe. If you’re looking for the perfect on-trend bikini, look no further than Kurt Geiger. Better known for their fabulously fashionable shoes, they’ve expanded their menu. One of the new items on offer is a superb snakeskin-print bikini with a ‘no strap marks here’ bandeau top straight off this season’s poolside catwalk. It has sass, glamour and the wow factor in spades! Featuring a glam, stitched-on metallic logo and flattering ruching to the bandeau top, this is one seriously in-demand bikini. £50, www.kurtgeiger.com

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15. GET A GRIP With Trendygolf as your personal designer/stylist/fashion adviser/tailor, you’ll already be one up against your uninspiring opponents on the first tee. This unique concept website is specifically aimed at self-confessed golf nuts who want to look as cool and fashionable on the green as out on the scene. To add colour to your game and power to your swing, the latest designer golf gloves by G-Fore come in a vast array of pleasing colours, including the two green shades seen here. In 100 per cent premium cabretta AA leather, these latest designer golf gloves conform to USGA rules, and are worn by American pro Ricky Barnes. £25, www.trendygolf.com

16. WINNING STYLE To keep fashion-conscious golf enthusiasts on top of their game, German luxury fashion and style house Hugo Boss has just launched its new deluxe Gioly Golf Bag for spring/ summer 2015, and it’s a winner. In hardwearing textured polyamide material, the bag has more detail, gimmicks, gizmos and compartments than you can shake a golf club at. There are 14 individual club compartments with integrated handles, two pockets with water-repellent zips, a cooler pocket with a water bottle (extremely useful for the golf course), a net bag with tee holders on the front, a rain hood with a glove and towel holder as well as an umbrella holder. There are two handles on the top and one on the underside, together with a detachable shoulder strap making it outstandingly comfortable to carry. What more could you possibly ask for in a first class golf bag? Nothing. That’s what. £429, www.trendygolf.com

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17. BUCKET LIST The bucket bag was an iconic item in the 1970s. It’s also quite possibly the biggest and the best trend in handbags right now. Both stylish and functional, the classic style has mostly been redesigned and revamped, making it even more desirable. Playing around with various sizes, designers have refreshed and updated the bucket bag with colour, cut-outs, textures, materials, trims and detailing. Another big plus is that the bucket bag has real style longevity. Shown here, designer Sophie Hulme has come up trumps with her compact style that has been flawlessly crafted in smooth leather. Her brave and brilliant approach to colour blocking – clashing cerulean blue with warm olive green and regal navy – is spot on. The bag has a drawstring top, a plush suede lining, an adjustable shoulder strap and her signature gold-plated hardware. £620, www.harveynichols.com

18. SUMMER SHADES As the temperature rises, cool, dreamy, Mediterranean-inspired shades of green are perfect for both make-up and nails. There’s a bit of everything, from the soft washedout green of sea foam, the crisp bite of sea fennel and the smoky tones of sage, to more vibrant jade green and teal shades. And the place to go green is at UK online organic beauty site, So Organic. The quality range of beauty and grooming products available on this quick, convenient and stylish shopping channel is nothing short of astonishing. As a company they don’t compromise their principles, and every ingredient in every product is carefully considered. Particularly on-trend is the smoky shady green eyeshadow with a hint of shimmer by one of Germany’s top make-up brands Dr Hauschka. For summertime nails, go for the more colour-intense ‘Green with Envy’ crème gloss nail varnish by leading professional nail-care brand Orly. It’s free from nasties such as DBP, formaldehyde and toluene. Eyeshadow, £12.75; and nail varnish, £10.25. www.soorganic.com

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Directory To advertise in the directory in print or online contact Carl Methven on + 44 (0)1534 615886 or carl.methven@blglobal.co.uk

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Appleby is the leading provider of offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services. Uniquely positioned in the key offshore jurisdictions of Bermuda, BVI, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Mauritius and the Seychelles, as well as the international financial centres of London, Hong Kong and Shanghai. We are also the only firm to have offices in all three British Crown Dependencies. Our services include: l Corporate l Dispute Resolution l Private Client & Trusts l Property Members of the Jersey and Guernsey offices regularly advise London City and international law firms on all legal aspects of offshore corporate, finance and investment fund transactions and arrangements in the Channel Islands. For more information visit our website www.applebyglobal.com/our-expertise Michael Cushing Managing Partner, Jersey +44 (0)1534 818 395 mcushing@applebyglobal.com Gavin Ferguson Managing Partner, Guernsey +44 (0)1481 755 603 gferguson@applebyglobal.com

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