Guernsey announces licence fee rate

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission has confirmed that it will apply a blended rate increase of 2%, including anomalies, to the fees charged to licensees effective from January 1, 2017. There will also be a change to the fee structure for the insurance sector.

Last year, the Commission agreed to work with representatives of the Guernsey International Insurance Association (GIIA) to determine whether an alternative approach could be taken to the allocation of fees across the insurance sector while continuing to deliver proportionate and credible regulation.

GIIA proposed a restructuring of fees which would see international commercial general insurers and reinsurers bearing a greater proportion of the fees relative to other types of insurer who may take up less regulatory resources. In particular, it was proposed that Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) business, which is fully collateralised and therefore presents a lower regulatory risk, should bear a lower proportion of the fees to reflect that reduced risk.