GLOBAL BUSINESS: A VIEW FROM THE CHANNEL ISLANDS
BUSINESSLIFE
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ISSUE 62 MAY/JUNE 2019
The 2019 wealth edition Wealth management hubs Passion assets • Africa Family offices • Cryptocurrencies Blockchain • Cost of living Wealth transfer
BUSINESSLIFE
who gives? ISSUE 62 MAY/JUNE 2019
The changing face of philanthropy
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Welcome
Young and ethical: the new wealth owners IT SEEMS COUNTERINTUITIVE to say the wealthy are feeling the pinch. But they are. According to the Coutts Luxury Price Index, which looks at UK prices, the wealthy are dealing with an eyewatering 5.9% rise in inflation, compared with just 2.4% for general consumers (page 54). And Coutts doesn’t see that trend ending any time soon. So it’s time for wealth managers to help clients revisit their investment strategies to keep pace with rising prices. It’s just one of the trends we’ve identified in this, our 2019 Wealth edition. Two others stand out: a shift towards spending and investing with a conscience, and the entrance of the millennial generation into the arena of wealth owners. The two are not unrelated. First, those millennials. Over the next 30 years, £1.2trn of wealth will pass from baby boomers to the next generation in the UK alone, according to wealth manager Sanlam (page 58). Here’s the worrying thing. While 34% of that younger generation is relying on that inheritance to help them out financially in later life, and 31% say it’s deterred them from saving to ‘live in the now’, 38% haven’t even spoken to their baby boomer parents about their plans for their inheritance. Advisers must start thinking about how they can help to facilitate that conversation and enable a smooth transfer of this unprecedented wealth. So how are millennials changing the way that wealth is spent and invested? Philanthropy is one area that gives us a clue. Whereas in the past giving was a more personal and local activity, advisers are seeing a shift to clients wanting to solve ‘world’ problems: climate change, plastic in the oceans, even human trafficking and slavery (page 26). They are driven, perhaps, by visible role models such as Bill and Melinda Gates. This shift is partly influenced by ethically conscience millennials for whom philanthropy is presenting itself as a way of getting involved in the family’s wealth-related activities. The risk? That the reward of seeing your money do good may be a long time coming. They may need help in managing their expectations. A social conscience is also increasingly evident in the area of passion assets (page 30). It’s no longer enough to invest in fine wine, for example. Younger investors want to put their money into winemakers committed to sustainable production. Wealth managers say they are seeing
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an intra-generational shift in investing, with millennials focusing on impact investing. The good news is these investments are starting to perform well in their own right, which means profit with purpose. Whatever the trends, Guernsey’s and Jersey’s advantages as wellregulated and politically stable international financial centres mean wealth owners continue to bring their business to the islands. On page 54, we explore what makes other jurisdictions global centres of wealth management and find the Channel Islands stack up well on this global stage. The challenge they face is a continued pressure to innovate – through products such as international savings plans and green investment funds – and to develop the talent required to remain a global wealth management hub.
ELSEWHERE IN THIS ISSUE … In my inaugural issue, I promised evolution, not revolution, in any changes made to Businesslife. That evolution continues in this issue with the introduction of two new sections – Regulation Watch and Comment. The islands are no stranger to regulation and we have no shortage of leading legal experts to help businesses stay on top of it. Regulation Watch, written by those experts, aims to alert you to relevant new and upcoming legislation. In time, we hope this section will become a ‘must read’ for those wanting the top line on the laws they need to know about. In Comment, we want to highlight the thought leadership that exists within the community of experts working across Guernsey and Jersey. Whether on business, finance or technology, we suspect there are a lot of thought-provoking views out there that deserve a platform. The more opinionated, the better! Thank you to the contributors who have helped us launch these sections – PwC, Jersey Finance, Appleby and BCR Law Jersey. We hope you enjoy them. As ever, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these or any other articles in the issue. Email me at eila.madden@blglobal.co.uk n
It’s no longer enough to invest in fine wine. Younger investors want to put their money into winemakers committed to sustainable production
Eila Madden, Editor-in-Chief, Businesslife
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Contents
INSIDE
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51
BL
BUSINESSLIFE
Businesslife is published six times a year by Chameleon Group +44 1534 615886 www.blglobal.co.uk
CEO, CHAMELEON GROUP Carl Methven carl.methven@blglobal.co.uk EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Eila Madden ART DIRECTOR Angela Lyons SUB EDITOR Kate Wheal ADVERTISING sales@blglobal.co.uk NEWS AND EDITORIAL news@blglobal.co.uk GENERAL ENQUIRIES enquiries@blglobal.co.uk
26 6 News
30 alternative assets
54 cost of living
A round-up of the latest Channel Islands business news
Social conscience is driving the latest wave of passion investments
8 Appointments
34 africa
The wealthy are looking for investment advice as they start to feel the pinch
The latest people moves in Guernsey and Jersey
Land of opportunity for the Channel Islands
10 regulation watch
42 family offices
Legal updates on financial crime, personal injury and more
Family offices evolve to meet the needs of their increasingly complex clients
20 Interview What’s on the agenda for HSBC Channel Islands and Isle of Man’s new Chief Executive, Sue Fox?
26 philanthropy How to manage the risks of giving
48 cryptocurrencies
58 wealth transfer Baby boomers prepare to pass on unprecedented levels of wealth to their millennial children
64 wealth management hubs
Why the interest in digital currencies just won’t go away
How do Guernsey and Jersey compare with financial centres around the globe?
51 blockchain
82 20 questions
Six experts tell us why investors are getting excited about distributed ledger technology
Mourant’s Tamara Vanmeggelen, on crashing snow mobiles and playing craps
14 Comment Unleashing girl power, and Jersey’s success in Dubai
69 The knowledge How to succession plan, what’s hot in PropTech, plus more
contributors The BL Global Discussion Forum
DOMINIC DUDLEY
Follow us @blglobalnews Office: Meadowlands, La Rue a la Dame, St Saviour, Jersey JE2 7NQ © 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.
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Dominic is a Londonbased writer and analyst, specialising in politics, economics and finance. In his first piece for Businesslife, he assesses the Channel Islands’ record as a global wealth management hub.
SHARON GETHINGS
Sharon is an experienced financial journalist, having covered the world of finance for more than two decades. A previous contributor to Businesslife, this time she looks at how the family office is evolving.
DR DESNÉ MASIE
Desné is an economist and thought leader in international finance, specialising in policy, regulation and fintech. In this issue, she explores opportunities for investors in two areas: Africa and blockchain.
GILL WADSWORTH
A new addition to our team of writers, Gill is a specialist pensions and investment writer and a regular contributor to the Financial Times. For us, she writes about the great inter-generational wealth transfer.
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in the NEWS Follow us @blglobalnews
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EU finance ministers give thumbs up on substance THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL of Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) has given Guernsey and Jersey the thumbs up on meeting substance requirements, further strengthening their respective competitiveness as international finance centres (IFCs). At its March meeting in Brussels, ECOFIN formally approved the EU Code of Conduct Group’s findings that Guernsey had satisfied the EU’s legal substance requirements for entities operating in or through the jurisdiction. Companies that are tax resident in Guernsey and undertake specific activities must demonstrate that they have sufficient
substance in the island. Dominic Wheatley (pictured), Chief Executive of Guernsey Finance, said: “This is a real endorsement of Guernsey as a cooperative jurisdiction and further indication of our ongoing commitment to meeting international standards.” ECOFIN has also confirmed Jersey’s status as a cooperative jurisdiction after the island met commitments made to the EU Code of Conduct Group on Business Taxation by the end of 2018. The Group had raised concerns about the possibility
that profits from relevant activities were registered in Jersey without adequate economic activity in the island. The ECOFIN announcement reflects work by the Government of Jersey, the Jersey Financial Services Commission and financial services firms to introduce economic substance legislation on a tight timescale. Jersey Finance CEO Joe Moynihan said: “Having these new rules now in place should give investors a clear indication of just how seriously Jersey takes its obligations as a well-regulated IFC and of its ongoing commitment to play a positive role in Europe’s future.” n
Done Deals
Carey Olsen’s Jersey investment funds team has advised Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners on the Jersey legal and regulatory aspects of Quinbrook Low Carbon Power Fund’s final closing, which raised $1.6bn in primary and coinvestment fund commitments. Oak Group (Jersey) was Jersey administrator to the fund, which focuses on investments in the new-build lower carbon and renewable energy sectors of the US, UK and Australia. The fund took advantage of the regulated Jersey Eligible Investor Fund regime to target institutional investors, including those in the UK, US and Australia. The Carey Olsen team was led by Partner Chris Griffin, assisted by Senior Associate Sarah Townsend and Associates Adriana Boscariol and Calvin Crilly. Oak provided directors and a company secretary with knowledge in the clean energy sector.
Mourant has advised Kuwait Energy on its acquisition by Gold Cheers Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Energy Group, for $477m. The transaction was implemented by a Jersey court sanctioned scheme of arrangement. Mourant has acted for Kuwait Energy since 2010, when it established a Jersey parent company. The Mourant team acted as Jersey counsel and was led by Corporate Partner Jon Woolrich and Litigation Partner Stephen Alexander. Andrew Salisbury, Rory Forrest and Amy Wilson assisted. Allen & Overy acted as lead onshore counsel to Kuwait Energy.
Appleby has assisted investment fund Tritax Big Box REIT (TBBR) with its £370m acquisition of an 87% stake in UK warehouse developer db symmetry. db symmetry has a land portfolio of 2,500 acres, a boon to TBBR, given the scarcity of logistics land in the UK. TBBR part-funded the purchase price of £370m by raising £250m through a placing and open offer of 192.3 million new shares. The Appleby team in Jersey, led by Corporate Partner Andrew Weaver and assisted by Associate Paul Worsnop, advised on the acquisition documents and helped TBBR structure the acquisition vehicle through which the db symmetry senior management team retains its 13% interest in the group. Ogier’s Guernsey team has advised investment manager Baillie Gifford on the $477m launch of the Schiehallion Fund, which trades on the Specialist Fund Segment of the Main Market of London Stock Exchange. An Ogier team led by Partner Craig Cordle advised on the launch, Baillie Gifford’s first Guernsey fund. The team also included Associate Gabrielle Saul. Schiehallion’s objective is to generate capital growth by making long-term minority investments in later-stage private businesses.
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A cross-jurisdictional Carey Olsen team has also advised professional services firm Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) on its acquisition of insurer Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group for $5.6bn in fully diluted equity value. Working with Slaughter and May, Carey Olsen advised on the financial regulatory approvals in connection with the acquisition in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Jersey and Guernsey. Its Channel Islands team included Partner Christopher Anderson and Senior Associate Arya Hashemi (Guernsey), and Partner James Willmott and Counsel David Allen (Jersey).
Bedell Cristin has advised Royal Bank of Scotland International (RBSI) on real estate finance facilities made available to Ravenscroft Private Investment Fund. The team provided both Guernsey and Jersey law advice in connection with the financing of the acquisition by the fund of primary office accommodation at Seaton Place and the Esplanade in Jersey. The transaction involved the acquisition of Jersey and Guernsey property-owning vehicles, the review of corporate and property due diligence and the production of a suite of Guernsey and Jersey finance documentation. The Bedell Cristin team was led by Guernsey Partner Kate Ovenden and Global Head of the Corporate and Finance practice Tim Pearce. They were assisted by Head of Property Jeff O’Boyle, Senior Associates Sukh Chana and Antony Clerehugh, and Associate Conor Moran. n
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Jersey tech sector catches up with tourism JERSEY’S DIGITAL SECTOR is now roughly equal in size to its tourism sector, contributing around £180m of value to the island’s economy annually. The sector has also created more than 100 new jobs each year since 2010, according to a new report by Tech Nation, the UK government-backed body that measures the size and changing shape of the UK’s digital economy. Despite the jobs growth, there remains a concern about the lack of tech talent on the island. Three-quarters of Jersey businesses say recruiting skilled IT workers is a challenge that is affecting their ability to scale. Tech Nation has worked with Digital Jersey to publish the report on the state of Jersey’s digital tech economy. The first of its kind, it emphasises the importance of digital tech to the island’s ecosystem both now and in the future. n
Green insurance plans set out GUERNSEY GREEN FINANCE (GGF) and the Guernsey International Insurance Association have set out a strategic view on ways to develop green insurance product in the island, in a response to a discussion paper from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. Proposals for short-term action and long-term strategy include: discounted regulation fees for green insurance; promotion of insurance-linked securities more strongly as a green product; and a broadening of the island’s jurisdictional strategy to extend climate risk insurance to developing nations. “This is a major opportunity to collaborate through Guernsey Green Finance and drive the widespread adoption of sustainable finance,” said GGF Chair Andy Sloan. “We are confident the suggestions in our response to the discussion paper represent areas where there is the opportunity to develop green insurance, thanks to the island’s position as a specialist insurance centre and a leader in sustainable finance.” n
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Mergers & Acquisitions ABN Amro Bank has signed an agreement for the sale of its Channel Islands operations to Butterfield Bank. The proposed transaction, which is still subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close before the end of Q3. The aggregate purchase price is reported to be £161m in cash, subject to adjustments. With the addition of ABN Amro Channel Islands, Butterfield significantly expands its Channel Islands presence. After closing, ABN Amro Channel Islands’ business and employees will be integrated with Butterfield’s Guernsey operations and operate under the Butterfield name. Guernsey-based Oak – the corporate services and fund administration group formed in March by uniting Oak Trust Group, Consortia and Kreston IOM – has acquired International Administration Group (IAG), a fund administration business also based in Guernsey. As a condition of the deal, Oak has agreed to the continued involvement of IAG directors in the business, and IAG has become a shareholder in Oak. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals but once completed Oak will employ more than 200 people across six jurisdictions. Data specialist Calligo has acquired Connected Technologies, a Canadian specialist in outsourced IT and cloud services, as Calligo focuses on growth outside Jersey and Guernsey. The purchase of Connected, based in Ontario, adds to two previous acquisitions by Calligo in Canada – cloud services provider 3 Peaks in October 2017 and outsourced IT services company Mico Systems in May last year. Financial services group Canaccord Genuity is to acquire Thomas Miller Wealth Management (TMWML) and the private client investment management business of Thomas Miller Investment (Isle of Man). The acquisitions will be made through Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, which has offices in Jersey and Guernsey, via a share purchase agreement and an asset purchase agreement respectively. The client assets of the two Thomas
Miller businesses total around £1bn and generated revenue of £8.4m for the year ended 31 December 2018. A total of £18.5m will be payable on closing, with up to £9.5m payable over three years following completion – expected in Q2 – subject to meeting performance targets. JTC has acquired Luxembourg-based Exequtive Partners, a provider of corporate and related fiduciary services established in 2013. All of Exequtive’s 28 staff, including five principals, will join JTC’s Institutional Client Services team. As well as expanding JTC’s jurisdictional presence, the firm says the acquisition builds on its corporate services capabilities and complements its funds offering. JTC, which has been operating in Luxembourg for 10 years, was recently granted a depositary licence by Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance. Guernsey marketing agency LRD has joined up with pan-island communications and digital agency TPA. Under the TPA brand, they will deliver marketing, creative and digital services together – though it is understood that no financial transaction has taken place. LRD Managing Director Tom Robertshaw will join the TPA board as Director of Client Services, working with TPA’s recently promoted Business Director, Ben Inder. Meanwhile, LRD Creative Director Ian Langlois has been named as the new Associate Creative Director, working alongside TPA’s Creative Director, Phil Regan. Jersey law firm Steenson’s has merged with Nicholls Law, which will operate as Steenson Nicholls and be led by Senior Partner David Steenson. As a limited liability partnership, it will practise from new premises in St Helier. The merger reunites a team of lawyers who previously worked together at Walkers. Investor services group SGG has been renamed IQ-EQ, bringing together SGG, First Names Group, Augentius, Singaporebased Iyer Practice and South African funds administration firm Viacert under a single brand. Mark Pesco, the former CEO of SGG and First Names, has become the new Jersey-based CEO of IQ-EQ. n
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News
Appointments Former Deputy CEO of Guernsey Finance Kate Clouston has joined Collas Crill as Global Relationship Manager, connecting private clients, family offices and businesses with the firm’s advisers. She will also work with the business development team. Before joining Collas Crill, Kate oversaw Guernsey Finance’s international business development. She has also spent significant periods overseas. She speaks Mandarin and before moving to Guernsey was based in Hong Kong. Earlier in her career, Kate was a political analyst in London with the Royal United Services Institute, where she assisted with research on a broad range of projects.
David Pike has joined the senior management team of Channel Island technology business C5 Alliance as its Chief Financial Officer, based in Jersey. David’s previous roles drew on his expertise in change management and driving financial performance across organisations. He is also Director of financial and strategic consultancy Shenadir Management Services. In the past, he has held senior positions at law firms Crestbridge and Bedell Group in Jersey and DAC Beachcroft and Bevan Brittan in the UK, working to instil discipline around the professional services culture of the businesses.
Vistra has appointed Paul Sewell as Compliance Director, UK, Ireland and Channel Islands. Based in Jersey, Paul will oversee the strategic direction and implementation of Vistra’s compliance strategy, ensuring Vistra meets international compliance standards and local regulatory requirements. He has more than 30 years of experience in the finance industry, primarily in the provision of fiduciary services. He joins Vistra after more than five years with Affinity Private Wealth in Jersey. He has served as an Executive Board Director for four trust companies since 2000, including Chiltern, from which Vistra was formed.
Moore Stephens has named Brona Lambert as Director, Accounting and Business Services, in the Channel Islands. Brona joined Moore Stephens Jersey in 1999 as a Senior Accountant. She became a Partner in 2009, responsible for developing the outsourcing department and providing solutions for financial institutions and corporates. In her new role, Brona will provide services to a wide range of local businesses. Her early career includes periods with PwC, KPMG and Robert Gordon Group. More recently, she has served as Client Services Director in Moore Stephens’ Trust and Corporate Services division.
Brendan Stewart has been appointed Managing Director of Investec Private Bank in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Brendan has held a number of senior roles with Investec Bank in South Africa during his 14 years with the group, including Regional Head, Investec Private Bank, in Durban. For the past decade, he has overseen the Private Banking business in the region and sat on the bank’s National Management Committee for South Africa. Previously, Brendan held management positions with Grant Thornton and EY, and London-based venture capital firm Unilever Ventures.
Brooks Macdonald has announced senior changes in its International business in the Channel Islands. Andrew Shepherd (pictured), Group Deputy Chief Executive and Managing Director, UK Distribution, has been named CEO of International, and will be based in Jersey. He will chair the boards of the two legal entities within International, so he has stepped down from the group board. Meanwhile, Richard Hughes becomes Deputy CEO of International, in addition to his role as Head of Business Development for the business, a Jersey post he has held for the past five years.
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News
The Institute of Directors has elected Lisa Springate to be the new Chair of IoD Jersey from May. Lisa has been a member of the IoD board since 2017. A UK barrister and Jersey Advocate, she has served as Head of Technical at Jersey Finance since November 2017, working with local financial services businesses, the Government of Jersey and the Jersey Financial Services Commission to represent the sector’s needs. Lisa has more than 25 years’ experience as a litigator. Prior to joining Jersey Finance, she was a Partner within the commercial litigation department of Bedell Cristin, with which she worked for more than 17 years.
Intertrust has appointed two Directors in Jersey – Laura Butler (pictured) in the performance and reward management team and Helier de Veulle in compliance, risk and control. Laura joined Intertrust in 2015 after 16 years with Computershare in Jersey, latterly as Implementation Manager. In her new role, she will continue to lead Intertrust’s share plan team while expanding operational and technological innovation. Helier joined Intertrust in 2014 and has more than 10 years’ experience in compliance. He previously served with Elian and has also spent time working with Jersey Post, HSBC Private Bank and Saltgate.
Estera has appointed Brendan Dowling as its new Jersey Managing Director. Brendan has been closely involved in all aspects of Estera Jersey’s leadership and management since he was appointed to the board in 2015, helping to set the strategic direction of the business and deliver revenue growth. Brendan joined Estera in 2008, having served as Trust Director at RBC for the previous three years. He has more than 20 years’ experience in fiduciary businesses as a trustee and corporate director while managing key client relationships for large institutional banks, FTSE 100 companies and large private businesses.
Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management in the UK and Europe has promoted Andy Finch (pictured) to Managing Director, CGWM (UK) Funds, based in Guernsey, and Chris Colclough to Head of Wealth Management, Guernsey. Andy joined CGWM in 2002 and is now a Director of Irish UCITS umbrella fund CGIF, a Director of Canaccord Genuity Management Company, and a member of Canaccord Genuity Wealth (International)’s executive committee. Chris worked for CGWM as a student and returned to the company in 2009. In 2012, he became Head of Portfolio Management, Guernsey, and in 2016 Deputy Head of Front Office.
Bedell Cristin has promoted Ann Halliday to the role of Counsel within its Guernsey office – becoming the first person at the firm to be promoted to this position. Ann joined the firm in 2016, having worked for eight years as a banking lawyer with Ogier in Guernsey. Earlier in her career, she worked for UK firms Cobbetts and Needham & James, as well as serving as Legal Manager for Barclays within the UK for three years. Ann became an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in 1984 and spent a number of years in banking before qualifying as a solicitor of England and Wales in 1997.
Apex Group has appointed Gareth Smith to the newly created role of Head of Channel Islands. A Chartered Accountant with expertise in property and private equity, Gareth joins from Maitland, where he has served as a Director for the past two years. Prior to that, he spent nearly 10 years at R&H Fund Administration, latterly as a Director in Jersey, driving local expansion, client relationships and new business. Apex Group’s existing Channel Islands Operations Directors, Gary Mauger (Guernsey) and Gary Ayres and Vimbai Bundu-Kamara (Jersey), will now report directly to Gareth.
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Regulation watch
Financial crime The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) has brought its anti-money laundering and countering financial crime framework in line with international standards, as Anthony Williams and Andrew Murphy report THE GFSC’S REVISED Countering Financial Crime and Terrorist Financing (Handbook) came into operation on 1 April 2019. The Commission’s goal for the Handbook is to keep the bailiwick’s framework for anti-money laundering (AML) and countering financial crime (CFT) in line with international standards, to nullify the evolving threat of increasingly sophisticated financial crime and methods of terrorist funding. Summary of key changes 1. Retirement of the previous distinction between ‘financial services businesses’ (such as banks) and ‘prescribed businesses’ (such as lawyers, accountants and insolvency practitioners). The Handbook applies to both under the term ‘specified businesses’. 2. The appointment of a Money Laundering Compliance Officer (MLCO) by 31 March 2019, with the GFSC notified of that appointment within 14 days. The MLCO has responsibility for monitoring
Electronic transactions The Electronic Transactions (Electronic Agents) (Guernsey) Ordinance 2019 offers legal certainty on smart contracts, says Richard Field GUERNSEY’S STATES PASSED the Ordinance at its sitting on 27 February 2019 in response to global uncertainty over the status of electronically concluded transactions. Whilst the Electronic Transactions Law is arguably sufficiently widely drafted, the growing adoption of artificial intelligence has led to calls for greater certainty around ‘electronic agents’ and their ability to bind others to the terms of transactions. An ‘electronic agent’ is defined as ‘a computer program or electronic or other automated means used independently to
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the business’s compliance with its AML/ CFT policies, procedures and controls and reporting to the board. However, the responsibility for the business’s compliance with the bailiwick’s AML/CFT regulatory framework lies with the board. This will be welcome clarification to those appointed to the position of MLCO, who might also (if appropriate) hold the position of Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO). 3. Businesses must ensure that a reviewed business risk assessment (BRA) has been revised and approved by the board by 31 July 2019. 4. The implementation of additional customer due diligence measures is no longer reserved for those matters considered to be high risk. Enhanced measures must be applied, whether or not the matter is considered to be high risk, in the following circumstances: • The customer is not resident in the bailiwick of Guernsey • The relationship or transaction relates to the provision of private banking services • The customer is a legal person or arrangement used for holding personal assets • The customer is a legal person with nominee shareholders or is owned by a legal person with nominee shareholders.
initiate an action or to respond in whole or in part to information or actions in electronic form or communicated by electronic means, without review or action by a natural person’. In other words, it is computer code that will carry out a task or series of tasks, in response to information it receives, without further input from a human – for example, programming a computer to purchase an item online once it has scanned the web for the lowest priced item. The Ordinance confirms that the creation, formation, execution and performance of binding contracts can be effected by computers without human intervention. Reliance on technology has raised awareness of the associated risks and the complex legal issues that arise. This has driven an interest in ensuring certainty where possible. We anticipate that the Ordinance will encourage innovation and businesses to rely on technology solutions to
5. Politically exposed persons (PEPs) are now categorised into Foreign PEPs and Domestic PEPs, with the introduction of International Organisation PEPs applicable to persons entrusted with prominent functions by international organisations. Businesses must have suitable procedures in place to minimise the risks associated with their dealings with the different categories of PEPs. The Handbook, a development within the island’s already rigorous AML/CFT regime, seeks to ensure that the bailiwick’s financial system is protected from illegitimate use and should prove to be yet another means to attract potential business to the bailiwick. In the event of any uncertainty as to their obligations according to the Handbook, businesses should seek advice as soon as practicable. n Anthony Williams (pictured left) is a Partner and Head of the Dispute Resolution department at Appleby Guernsey. Andrew Murphy is an Associate in the department.
automate routine processing, where possible. This is primarily a piece of ‘facilitative’ legislation. Those businesses that are interested in this space should review their terms of business and processes to ensure that the consequences of such concluded transactions are as intended. Similarly, the programming of ‘electronic agents’ should be reviewed to ensure that there are no bugs or errors that might have (unintended) binding consequences or cause confusion. There will be a presumption that the person utilising the electronic agent wished to form a binding contract through that agent, so be careful with that programming – ensure the instructions are clear! It may take a little time for use cases to become common, but the certainty provided by the Ordinance will be welcomed by businesses. n Richard Field is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution department at Appleby Guernsey.
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Regulation watch
Personal injury damages Changes to the way personal injury awards are calculated will force plaintiffs to take on more investment risk, Jeremy Heywood and Alexandra Baker warn
THE DAMAGES (JERSEY) LAW will place aspects of the calculation of damages in personal injury cases on a statutory footing. The two key aspects are: • A statutory ‘discount rate’ and the mechanism of setting it • Statutory provisions for a Periodic Payment Order (PPO), including an ability for the Court to impose a PPO against the wishes of the parties. Calculation of damages The overriding principle of compensation is that a plaintiff must be awarded a sum of money that puts them back in the position they would have been had the negligent act not occurred. Traditionally, damages have always been awarded in a single ‘lump sum’ payment. Damages are usually split into two categories: 1. General Damages, for the actual injuries suffered 2. Special Damages, for losses suffered as a consequence of the injuries (such as loss of earnings). Special Damages are further divided into Past Losses and Future Losses. Difficulties with future loss calculations Lump sum awards for future losses are calculated by establishing the annual loss (the multiplicand) and multiplying that by a number based on the anticipated period of the loss (the multiplier). The most difficult part of the calculation is working out what the appropriate multiplier is. Central to the calculation of the appropriate multiplier is the discount rate. What is the discount rate? The discount rate is an element of the calculation designed to factor in the anticipated real return that might be achieved on a lump sum award. The real return is the return that might be achieved after taking into account inflation, which erodes the value of money over time, and other costs. The higher the assumed real
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return a plaintiff is expected to achieve, the higher the discount rate and the lower the lump sum award. Conversely, the lower the assumed return, the lower the discount rate and the higher the lump sum award. Since the House of Lords decision in the case of Wells v Wells, the common law calculation of the discount rate assumed that a plaintiff would invest in the safest possible investments which, because they were linked to inflation, were thought to be ILGS (index-linked UK government securities). What are PPOs? An alternative method of awarding damages for future loss is to establish the annual loss, tie it to an appropriate inflation index and order that the defendant make an annual payment, to rise in value in accordance with that inflation index. A PPO must be secure – the defendant must be able to make the payment, now and many years into the future. Other factors to be considered are the circumstances in which any payment might end, or be suspended, and the circumstances in which the annual sum might be revisited. The Damages (Jersey) Law The law introduces a statutory discount rate. This is set at +0.50% for losses expected to last for less than 20 years and +1.80% for losses expected to last longer than 20 years. The law allows for the
discount rate to be altered by the Chief Minister with the approval of the Bailiff. The law allows the Courts to impose a PPO on the parties without consent, provided certain conditions are met. The law establishes that the PPO is deemed to be reasonably secure if the defendant is a Minister, or is protected by certain government schemes, or guaranteed by the Treasury Minister. Are the changes good or bad? It depends on who you think should bear the investment risk. The law moves away from the assumption that a plaintiff will invest only in the safest possible investments (ILGS) and assumes investment in a portfolio of investments. This means a plaintiff is now required to take more investment risk than previously in order to ensure that the award will meet their needs into the future. It is likely that plaintiffs will now also seek investment management costs as part of their claim because these costs are likely to increase significantly now that plaintiffs are required to invest their damages in portfolios. Ultimately this is a balancing exercise. It remains to be seen whether the government has struck the right balance with the current discount rates. n Jeremy Heywood is a Partner and Alexandra Baker is an English Solicitor at BCR Law Jersey. This is an extract from an article that is available at bcrlawjersey.com
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PwC Channel Islands understands that managing cyber risk effectively isn’t just a technology issue. It’s a combination of people, process and technology. We look at all three aspects to bring you an independent expert view on your cyber vulnerabilities and how to manage them. Protect what matters to you. Visit www.pwc.com/jg/cyber or email oliver.delafosse@pwc.com in Guernsey or david.carney@pwc.com in Jersey.
© 2019 PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP. All rights reserved. “PricewaterhouseCoopers” and “PwC” refer to the Channel Island firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, which is a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each member firm of which is a separate legal entity. PricewaterhouseCoopers CI LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in England with registered number OC309347, provides assurance, advisory and tax services. The registered office is 1 Embankment Place, London WC2N 6RH and its principal place of business is 37 Esplanade, St. Helier, Jersey JE1 4XA.
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CO M M E N T
Unleashing the power of women: the £400m boost to Channel Islands GDP
LEYLA YILDIRIM Chief Strategy Officer, PwC Channel Islands
New PwC research reveals that matching the female employment rates in Sweden could boost Channel Islands GDP by a massive 6% (equivalent to £239m in Jersey and £168m in Guernsey). So how can our islands realise this potential?
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omen are a critical but still under-used source of talent and economic dynamism in the Channel Islands. They bring in fresh ideas and experiences, and help bridge skills gaps when vacancies hold back economic performance. It isn’t just technical skills that are in demand, but also the creativity and emotional intelligence needed to innovate and connect with customers. As automation and artificial intelligence become more prevalent, the skills that can’t be replicated by machines will become the biggest differentiators. Many of these capabilities are associated with women rather than men. A 2018 study on women and leadership by Pew Research Center in the US found that women are more likely than men to be compassionate and empathetic, honest and ethical, and consider the societal impact of business decisions. Sizing the prize To find out how much the economy could benefit from improving opportunities for women, we asked PwC economists to rate Jersey and Guernsey against other leading economies in PwC’s Women in Work Index – which measures female participation in OECD economies and how pay compares with men. Sweden is used as the main benchmark as it consistently has one of the highest index ratings among major economies. The prize is set out in Channel Islands Women in Work Index 2019: Boosting diversity, prosperity and growth. This cites a combined GDP boost for Jersey and Guernsey of more than £400m, and an increase of more than £300m in women’s earnings by closing the gender pay gap.
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Yet a lot of barriers need to be overcome before we can capitalise. Jersey (20th) and Guernsey (14th) trail the UK as a whole (13th) in the index rankings and lag far behind Luxembourg (6th), a major competitor for financial services business and one of the fastest rising economies in the index. At 21%, the gender pay gap is especially wide in the Channel Islands (16.5% in the UK as a whole), reflecting the lack of representation of women in the most senior and highest paid posts. In Luxembourg the figure is only 4%, having fallen significantly in recent years. Why are many women finding it hard to break through the glass ceiling? Some barriers are common to all economies, including unconscious bias and lack of role models. Others are specific to the Channel Islands, including high childcare costs and limited parental leave. Anecdotally, we know that women joining their partners taking up positions in financial services on the islands can find it difficult to secure work unless they also have experience in the industry. Gender equality is on the government and business agenda in the Channel Islands. Yet the index rating and gender pay gap suggest gender equality is still seen as a nice-to-have rather than a competitive priority. Accelerating progress Boosting diversity, prosperity and growth outlines how governments, educators, businesses and women can make gender equality a reality – from tackling stereotypes at school that prevent many women from taking up careers in high-paying sectors, to challenging outdated attitudes on issues such as flexible working. Emphasis should also be put on opportunities to apply skills learned in one sector to another as industry boundaries blur – customer engagement or project/change management, for example. This still leaves the question of how we turn opportunities for women from a nice-to-have to an imperative. We at PwC believe gender pay gap reporting and targets for female representation will bring these issues into the open and inject an urgency into tackling them. Gender equality should get full board support, with proper accountability, targets, tracking and incentives. Our economy is at risk of deterring talent and investment if we don’t make progress. But if we work together to get it right, we can not only realise the GDP gains, but also position Channel Islands PLC as a skilled, dynamic, forward-looking place for talent and investment. n To read Channel Islands Women in Work Index 2019: Boosting diversity, prosperity and growth, visit pwc.to/2YbAsTT
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Butterfield Bank (Guernsey) Ltd PO Box 25, Regency Court, Glategny Esplanade, St. Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 3AP www.gg.butterfieldgroup.com
To find out more about Butterfield’s personalised wealth management services, please contact one of our Business Development Advisers: GUERNSEY +44 (0)1481 711521 or e-mail Guernsey@butterfieldgroup.com JERSEY +44 (0)1534 843333 or e-mail Jersey@butterfieldgroup.com
Butterfield Bank (Jersey) Ltd PO Box 250, St. Paul’s Gate, New Street, St Helier, Jersey JE4 5PU www.je.butterfieldgroup.com
THE BAHAMAS • BERMUDA • C AYMAN ISL ANDS • GUERNSEY • JERSEY • SINGAPORE • SWITZERL AND • UNITED KINGDOM Butterfield Bank (Guernsey) Limited (“BBGL”) is licensed and regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (“GFSC”) under the Banking Supervision (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1994, The Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1987 and the Regulation of Fiduciaries, Administration Businesses and Company Directors, etc (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2000, each as amended from time to time. Company Registration No. 21061. BBGL is a participant in the Guernsey Banking Deposit Compensation Scheme. The Scheme offers protection for ‘qualifying deposits’ up to £50,000, subject to certain limitations. The maximum total amount of compensation is capped at £100,000,000 in any 5 year period. Full details are available on the Scheme’s website www.dcs.gg or on request. Butterfield Trust (Guernsey) Limited (“BTGL”) is licensed and regulated by the GFSC under the Regulation of Fiduciaries, Administration Business and Company Directors, etc, (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2000, as amended. Company registration No 31645. BBGL and BTGL are both registered under the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2017 and are registered for the purposes of The Companies (Guernsey) Law 2008. Their registered office is P.O. Box 25, Regency Court, Glategny Esplanade, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 3AP. Butterfield Bank (Jersey) Limited (“BBJL”) is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission to conduct deposit taking business under the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991 (as amended), investment business, fund service business and money service business pursuant to the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998, (as amended). BBJL is registered under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law, 2018 and is registered with the Jersey Registrar of Companies for the purpose of the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 (as amended). BBJL’s registered office address is St Paul’s Gate, New Street, St Helier, Jersey JE4 5PU. Company registration number 124784. BBJL is a participant in the Jersey Bank Depositors Compensation Scheme. The Scheme offers protection for eligible deposits of up to £50,000. The maximum total amount of compensation is capped at £100,000,000 in any 5 year period. Full details of the Scheme and banking groups covered are available on the States of Jersey website www.gov.je/dcs, or on request. BBGL, BTGL and BBJL are wholly-owned subsidiaries of The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited. Photo by Lachlan Dempsey on Unsplash.
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CO M M E N T
The Jersey community in Dubai: our greatest success and ongoing challenges
RICHARD NUNN
Head of Business Development for Eastern Markets, Jersey Finance, based in Dubai
Six months on from establishing an office in Dubai, Jersey Finance is supporting a thriving Jersey community within the jurisdiction. However, the organisation mustn’t let this success detract from the other half of its remit – to engage with a Gulf target audience – if Jersey is to remain relevant in the region
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ince being founded in 2002, the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) has achieved seriously impressive growth to become the largest IFC in the Middle East and North Africa region. I would like to think that Jersey has, in part, contributed to that growth. Six months ago, Jersey Finance became the first IFC to establish an office in Dubai, based in the DIFC. It was the right home for us to establish our physical presence, attract talent to our organisation and manage the considerable network of Jersey intermediaries here. Dubai’s private wealth sector is the dominant interest for Jersey’s financial services companies, but other thriving sectors – including funds, banking and fintech – are offering up interesting additional opportunities. However, our base here has fast become a vital business hub that connects us to the core markets in the Gulf region, the wider Middle East and now Africa. From Dubai, we are today able to support our interests in more than a dozen high-profile cities. Personal approach Anyone with any experience of doing business in the Middle East will know that, locally, face-to-face meetings are preferred over what’s seen as the impersonal nature of emails and phone calls. This is a sentiment that Jersey’s private wealth sector understands. There’s no substitute for time spent in person with clients and key intermediaries. Jersey companies have been regularly visiting the home markets and environments of their Middle East clients for decades. Jersey Finance’s own presence in the UAE
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dates back to 2011, since when we have been supporting and paving the way for Jersey firms investing in this personal approach. During that time, the investment made by Jersey firms into the DIFC – and elsewhere in the Gulf region – has been significant, and we continue to see a growing community of Jersey practitioners active here. Now that we are on the ground, we can support that community in two ways. First, there’s the daily activity of establishing and managing relationships with intermediaries and key clients across the various cities. This raises the local and regional profile of Jersey and our presence offers existing clients reassurance. We are unique in doing this – very few here have encountered a non-profit promoter of a jurisdiction engaging in this style. Second, we are creating platforms, such as an active events schedule, to enable Jersey Finance members to leverage our networks and access new opportunities. Jersey’s efforts to establish itself as a core part of the DIFC are bearing fruit. A leading consultancy here recently commented that it felt there were only two of the historic IFCs at the table: Jersey and Switzerland. It’s very rare to meet practitioners from competing IFCs in this region, be they from the UK, Europe or the Caribbean. However, it’s incredibly common to encounter Jersey practitioners, and that’s prevalent within the key intermediary network here. In fact, it’s a competitive space just among the Jersey community. Maintaining balance This has been our greatest success and it’s also become our greatest challenge. There are numerous Jersey firms with a regional presence that are well supported by visiting colleagues, and key events such as STEP Arabia attract more Jersey visitors still. Jersey Finance has a unique vantage point through its relationships across the range of both intermediaries and end users, and that enables us to provide strong market intelligence to our industry. However, during certain weeks of the year, our time could be spent wholly with Jersey firms and, therefore, we must maintain a balance to ensure we continue to raise awareness and reinforce Jersey’s credentials to our target audience in the Gulf region. We enjoy a close relationship with our industry and we know Dubai-based firms very well, alongside almost all Jersey travellers that pass through. Working with all of these groups is what will keep Jersey relevant in this region. We must therefore continue to collaborate closely with our industry, adjust and evolve as opportunities arise, and, most importantly, continue to contribute to the success of our hosts in the DIFC. n
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Learn more about our parent company at ajg.com/uk R A Rossborough (Insurance Brokers) Limited is registered in Jersey No. 1944 at Liberation House, St Helier and regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission no. GIMB0042. R A Rossborough (Guernsey) Limited is registered in Guernsey no. 2873 at Rossborough House, Bulwer Avenue, St Sampson, Guernsey and is licensed by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission no. 36009. Rossborough Insurance (IOM) Limited is registered with the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority as an insurance intermediary in respect of general business. Registered in Isle of Man No. 110231C. Registered Office: New Wing, Victory House, Prospect Hill, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 1EQ. Information on Rossborough and its regulators can be accessed via rossborough.co.uk
Advertising feature
Substance laws
enhance Channel Islands’ quality private wealth management offering The Channel Islands have recently brought in new economic substance laws that meet requirements set out by the EU’s Code of Conduct Group (Business Taxation) (COCG). As practitioners evaluate how they and their clients can best comply with the new legislation, Alison Parry, Head of Private Wealth for Intertrust in Guernsey, examines what the new laws mean for the private wealth sector in particular
THE SUBSTANCE LAWS that have
come into force in each island represent significant pieces of legislation that will require certain tax-resident companies to meet a series of economic substance tests to prove their compliance. This could involve changes in how those companies operate. For private wealth practitioners concerned with the management and administration of wealth holding structures, family investment companies, equity holding companies and corporate clients, there is work to be done to identify which entities fall under the new laws and how to comply.
THE LAWS AND WHAT TO DO NEXT Under the new laws, which came into force from 1 January 2019, tax-resident companies will need to satisfy an economic substance test of three parts. Companies must: be directed and managed in Guernsey or Jersey; conduct Core Income Generating Activity (CIGA) there; and meet requirements with regard to the levels of personnel, physical presence and operating expenditure in the islands. Failure to comply could result in significant fines and, potentially, strike-off. The first thing for private wealth practitioners to do is to determine which of their Channel Island tax-resident companies could be affected. Proactive
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Boards have to respond quickly to the new laws. to help them do this, Intertrust has developed a ‘substance compliance checker’ tool to make the initial assessment as easy as possible
and informed service providers will already be talking to clients to explain the changes and to guide them through initial impact assessments. As a listed company with a longestablished presence and more than 500 experts across the two islands, Intertrust has developed its existing proposition to help clients meet the new requirements. Our teams are already in discussions with clients and their advisers. Boards have to respond appropriately and quickly to the new laws so, in order to help them do this, Intertrust has developed a ‘substance compliance checker’ tool to make the initial assessment as easy as possible. Intertrust will do this initial work automatically for companies on which it holds a board position, and will offer this service to all clients if requested.
OPTIONS FOR CLIENTS Intertrust works with a wide variety of private wealth and corporate clients and relevant activities (as detailed in the legislation) that may necessitate action in order to comply with the new laws. Another element of the new laws relates to tax returns and the need to make an annual declaration of compliance. This is something all clients need to be aware of. The outcomes of the assessments will
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likely result in a range of possibilities to discuss with clients and their advisers. This could be a time-consuming exercise, certainly for the more complex structures, so practitioners are encouraged to speak to their clients as soon as possible. In the current wealth management environment, practitioners are increasingly dealing with global clients with multijurisdictional assets and concerns. These structures are, by their nature, especially complex, so our Channel Islands teams have been working with their colleagues around the world to ensure compliance at a global level. Our global expertise, combined with our significant Channel Islands presence, means Intertrust can leverage best practices. This includes the provision of high-quality directors and governance solutions, which sit alongside our established corporate administration services. At the time of writing, the guidance for the new laws had just been issued. It may seem like a daunting task to assess a client, run through the options and then determine the next steps to take. However, in our experience, companies in the Channel Islands have consistently paid close attention to substance requirements through management and control processes, and this new legislation codifies existing practice.
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A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE The substance laws have been welcomed by local practitioners and industry as they represent modern, compliant jurisdictions that produce high-quality work. In a world that is characterised by increased regulation and compliance, clients are turning to proven quality and established reputation and the Channel Islands continue to be beacons of exemplary practice. The substance laws not only enable the islands to continue to meet international transparency standards, but mean they stand out as having a thorough approach to compliance and transparency. n Information correct as of 1 May 2019. The legal requirement to undertake the test of compliance remains with the entity being reviewed and not Intertrust. For disclaimer and legal messages, please visit the Intertrust Group website at intertrustgroup.com/legalnotice
The substance laws mean that the islands stand out as having a thorough approach to compliance and transparency
For more information, contact Alison Parry, Head of Private Wealth Guernsey, Intertrust Tel: +44 1481 211258 Email: alison.parry@intertrustgroup.com
may/june 2019 19
Interview
In the latest chapter of an impressive 30-year career at HSBC, Sue Fox has joined the bank’s Channel Islands and Isle of Man operation as CEO. She comes armed with an agenda of growth, great service and inclusion
Words: Eila Madden Pictures: Glen Perotte
Tell us more about your roles at HSBC over the past three decades. I’ve worked in frontline and head office roles in most major cities in the UK and New York. I spent time in London in the late 1990s/early 2000s working in service quality. That very much shaped my priorities for driving the right culture and
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doing the right thing for our customers. In my early 40s, I was the Global Head of Physical Distribution with responsibility for the branch and self-service network globally. I was travelling a lot, visiting two or three countries a week. It was a fantastic experience to help shape and influence all of our markets globally. While in that role, I was 43 going on 44, and I was having a baby. It was my first child, so this was very exciting, but a little bit unexpected. While I was on maternity leave, I was approached from within the group about the CEO role that was coming up in M&S Bank, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC. That brought me full circle because the headquarters for M&S Bank are in Chester. I’d lived away from the north west for 20 years or so and this brought me back into an infrastructure with family and friends that I hadn’t benefited from for a number of years.
The past 30 years have been varied, challenging and exciting, with the benefit of working for the same group
It was also a really excellent and unique opportunity within the group to be a CEO of a challenger bank. I did that for five years and it was a great experience. But as a career banker with HSBC, the real aspiration is to be a country CEO and to run a market. There had been approaches for different places, but when I was approached to consider the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, it was the dream job that came at a great time for me and my family as well. It’s a fantastic market that gives me the opportunity to lead across all of our different business lines, and you have the added complexities of the multijurisdictional aspects that this business brings. So it’s a very exciting opportunity that will really stretch and challenge me. I’ve spent time here on a personal basis as well. Being part of island life and being able to feel that I could be a force for good in this community was also something that attracted me to the role. What took you to the islands in the past? My partner Paul was actually living in Jersey when we met and, when we had our son, he was still here, so there was lots of commuting backwards and forwards. I spent a large part of my maternity leave here in Jersey and became very familiar with the island. My young son Samuel, who’s just six, was here over Easter and we were talking about how he’d been here before and he’d already been to the zoo when he was a baby. It was that personal connection and personal familiarity with the island that was also a draw for me. You’ve been in post for around three months now. How would you assess what is and isn’t working well within the operation? We’re performing strongly overall across all of our lines of business, which really gives me confidence for the future and tells me
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What’s your background and how did you get to where you are now? It’s probably not the typical CEO story. I was born and raised in Liverpool. I’m an only child. I’m from a working-class family. I’m state school educated. From around the age of 12, due to my father’s occupation – he became a pub landlord – we moved around a few times, so I went through a number of different senior schools. My parents instilled a really good work ethic in me and a belief that I could be anything I wanted to be. So, despite that background, which is not maybe typical for people in my position, I still had a very strong degree of confidence that I could succeed. I actually left school at 18 with A levels. I had a place secured at Sheffield University and my intention was to have a year off. I wrote to five local high-street banks, asking for a job. It was meant to tide me over until I went off to do my further education. The local Midland Bank branch manager was recruiting at the time, so I interviewed in the branch and 31 and a half years later, I’m still here. My reason for staying in banking was very much around the passion I felt for being able to serve customers. The past 30 years have been varied, challenging and exciting, with the benefit of working for the same group. Once I was established in the firm, I got on to a management training programme, which supported me through doing my banking exams. I also got a first-class degree in banking and finance.
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interview sue fox www.blglobal.co.uk
may/june 2019 21
â–¼
The
Interview
How do you intend to build on the strategy you’ve inherited from your predecessor? I want to ensure that we stay focused on what our customers want. Connectivity with customers is absolutely critical for me. Customer needs are dynamic, so a strategy that was put in place two years ago wouldn’t always remain relevant to what our customers want today. So, the strategic direction is the right one, but the focus I want to bring to it is how we remain connected to our customers’ evolving wants and needs. I also want to create a culture and environment where people feel empowered and trusted and able to bring the best to our customers, and ensure we deliver against our strategic goals In terms of delivering what your customers want, is there anything specific that you’d like to focus on? I’ll share one example. If we think about
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I want to create a culture and environment where people feel empowered and trusted and able to bring the best to our customers
our local business, customers want to feel more valued and feel that their relationship with us might go beyond their banking relationship. So in early June, we’re launching Island Privileges, which will provide additional local benefit for HSBC customers and will help them feel special about banking with us. HSBC is one of the banks affected by the UK’s new rules on ring-fencing retail banking activities, from which Channel Islands operations have been excluded. What opportunities does this give you? Ring-fencing has been a major transformational change. Internally, there was a lot of work in the background and a technological impact. I think we did a great job as a group to really minimise the impact on our customers. We’re very much a separate business from the UK bank now, and have become even more strategically important to the group because of our new
autonomy. This has given us the ability to secure investment from the group to deliver against the growth aspirations that we have and to be in charge of our own destiny, to a larger degree. You’ve been publicly recognised in the past for your support for the LGBT+ community. Why is diversity and inclusion (D&I) so high on your agenda? We can talk about LGBT+ and gender diversity, but for me, diversity and inclusion are very much around having a fully inclusive workplace that’s open to different points of view and where every colleague feels safe and able to bring their whole self to work. If they can bring their whole self to work, they can be at their best. We need to create that environment because I think it’s the minimum that any colleague should expect – and the minimum we should offer. Valuing people because of, and not
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that our strategy is working and it’s the right one, and we’re doing the right things in terms of our offerings for customers. The strategy we have here is to invest in and grow the business and a lot of that investment is around ensuring we have tailored products and propositions for all our clients and that they’re delivered in the most streamlined way. With that in mind, it can on occasion be quite difficult to do business with us – for example, how we open accounts for customers. We are investing in technology to make it simpler, better and faster for our customers and our people.
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may/june 2019 23
Interview
FACT FILE Name: Sue Fox Age: 50 Position: CEO, HSBC, Channel Islands and Isle of Man Studied at: University of Central England Graduated in: Banking and finance Member of: Chartered Institute of Bankers, Chartered Management Institute, National Centre for Universities and Business Partner: Paul Mum to: Samuel, aged six Hobbies: Squash, golf, family time Did you know: Sue was ranked 52nd in the FT HERoes Champions of Women in Business 2018 Top 100 Female Champions list, and 9th (2017) and 15th (2018) in the OUTstanding LGBT+Allies list in spite of, the difference they bring is something that I’m really passionate about. It’s important that we don’t just pat ourselves on the back and say, ‘Well, we accept difference or we’ve got diversity in our team’. We need to actively embrace and celebrate difference and it’s important to keep talking about it, because it’s not happening everywhere or for everyone. When you hear stories of how people have been discriminated against in mainstream environments, which you wouldn’t expect to hear today, it just makes me more resolute to ensure that everybody in my business feels safe and secure and respected for being who they are. If people don’t feel they have to hide themselves, which takes effort, that effort can be directed into being a great business to work in and delivering great customer service. Was there a particular story that triggered your commitment to this issue? Yes, there have been a number of stories. One in particular was from a former colleague, who told me about how, while at her previous employer, she came out as a gay woman and introduced people to her partner. She said attitudes towards her palpably changed. People would go quiet when she went in a room, she was taken off distribution lists, she wasn’t invited to certain meetings and she told us that when she moved in with her partner, somebody burnt her car out outside her house. It felt unbelievable that was happening in this day and age in mainstream society. I actually felt quite guilty for not realising that this level of discrimination and fear was happening out there. What’s your take on HSBC Channel Islands’ record on diversity and inclusion? If I look at my immediate team, they are
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from different backgrounds, different types of experience, different cultures and different nationalities. There’s a good representation of the teams and the communities we serve, but there’s more to do. We need to ensure that everybody feels, regardless of their background, experience and preferences, HSBC is a place that embraces them and what they bring to the table. This diversity of thought is really important to me. One thing I always say is that if everyone around the table is thinking the same thing, then nobody’s thinking. On a practical level, what would you like to see people who work for you doing to foster this D&I culture? To be role models. The fact that I’ve got quite a diverse senior team enables the rest of our business to be able to look up and
Valuing people because of, and not in spite of, the difference they bring is something that I’m really passionate about
say, ‘There’s someone like me’. We do need to share our stories and encourage our people to share their stories too. I think we need to be cognisant of unconscious bias and challenge ourselves to not recruit in our own image – and that goes across all people with all different backgrounds. I want people to continually challenge themselves and each other, to be open to different ideas and views, and to nurture people. Twelve months from now, what are the main things you hope to have achieved? Twelve months down the line, I would want our colleagues to be advocates of HSBC, to be advocates of our products and services and to feel like they are valued, supported and that they are in a workplace where they want to grow and develop their careers. I would want customers to be equally as enamoured with the services that we provide. I would also want our people and customers to recognise our commitment to do what’s right for them and that we treat them with empathy. And, obviously, I want us to be delivering against our strategy in achieving our growth aspirations. So not much! It’s important to say that those are not just 12-month goals; they are forever goals. At any point in time, each of those aspects should be better than they were previously. We’re on that journey already. We will have employees who feel like that, we’ll have customers who feel like that and we’re a successful business. But the more we invest in that workplace culture, in being customer-centric and delivering sustainable long-term results, the more likely that we’re going to be here for another 150 years. n EILA MADDEN is Editor-in-Chief of Businesslife magazine
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Terre d’Italia is a shop in the heart of St Helier, selling Italian wine, food, and some lifestyle items. We are committed to working with artisans who are passionate about the originality and quality of their products and maintaining the sustainability of agriculture
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l We aim for an inclusive environment; the shop is fully accessible to those with mobility problems or disabilities;
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Philanthropy
The reality of charity Today’s philanthropists want to tackle big environmental and social issues. but Advisers to high-net-worth donors need to be prepared to hold their client’s hand on a long and sometimes unrewarding journey Words: Jack Flanagan
26 may/june 2019
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Philanthropy
you can’t fault us for trying. An increasing number of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are looking beyond accumulating things, to find happiness and meaning through their wealth in other ways. Giving back, either by donating to charities or setting up a foundation to do so in a more structured way, is becoming popular. Wealth management professionals in the Channel Islands may already have noticed an uptick in these sorts of conversations. Jersey alone holds £400bn in private assets and is home to more than 1,200 trusts and foundations (the two key structures used for philanthropy), according to research firm Gibson Strategy. In Guernsey, while no central trusts register exists, making it difficult to estimate the correct number of trusts, 102 foundations are registered in the bailiwick. The introduction of a voluntary charities register in May 2018, which enables trusts and foundations to register as charities and become eligible for a number of tax exemptions and reliefs, has made Jersey a particularly attractive jurisdiction for potential philanthropists. Similarly, the Foundations Law introduced in 2013 in Guernsey has provided clear guidelines for foundations hoping to set up in the jurisdiction. “The number of wealthy individuals giving philanthropically has increased, especially over the past 20 years,” says Tom Hall, Head of Philanthropy Services, UK, at UBS. “For some, it might be about trying to create a family legacy so that their children and grandchildren can carry it on. Other people are driven by the same entrepreneurial attitude that helped them create their wealth, as well as a genuine desire to solve global health or environmental challenges of our time. “In the past two or three years, we’ve especially seen interest in solving environmental issues, for instance, to do with climate change, wildlife and the oceans. Education and tackling issues like human trafficking and slavery are also prominent.” There may be a couple of reasons for the increase in interest. Philanthropists are more visible than before. Two decades ago, it would have been typical to give quietly to a charity or donate to a hospital and have a wing named after you. Large
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donations are now given wider media coverage and this highlights giving as an option to other HNWIs. Take, for example, Bill Gates, whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation holds $50.7bn (£43.7bn), entrusted to it by Gates. The company has helped nearly wipe out polio. Such examples show the tangible, sometimes transformational, difference philanthropy can make. Philanthropy is also presenting itself as an option for younger generations who might not want to join the family business, but still want to be involved in some way. “When you look at the family dynasty, it’s not always the people who generated the wealth who are the philanthropists,” says Sam Bird, Managing Director of Trust and Corporate Services at accountancy firm Moore Stephens in Guernsey. “Often, the money is being created from ongoing business activity, whether or not there’s input from the family. The next generation might be more interested in philanthropic giving than running the business. It doesn’t excite them; they want to give something back.”
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS For people who want to give back, the desire to do so will almost certainly come from a more intimate and personal space than their corporate interests. Rachel Harrington, Director of the Coutts Institute, believes that helping a client to explore the world of philanthropy requires “huge dollops of emotional intelligence”. “Someone’s motivation to give will be intensely personal and nuanced,” she says. “Really try to figure out why they want to do it, because that will shape the questions around the potential beneficiaries [see box overleaf]. Encourage them to be honest. Some people are inclined to make giving almost a secondary career, being actively involved in the process, while other people might just be trying to get money out the door. It’s questions like these that are the successful building blocks to satisfactory giving.” Managing clients’ expectations – or helping them understand the realities of the situation – is key. Return on investment is far harder to measure when the profit is social change or defeating a disease. It’s important during these conversations
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IT’S SAID MONEY can’t buy you happiness, but
Philanthropy
to explain the true scale of the problem that someone’s invested in trying to fix. “I think it’s integral to the discussion,” says Harrington. “Ultimately, my job is to help the client create a strategy that’s an enjoyable and rewarding experience. It’s not so much about reining them in, but about helping them understand what some of the other realities might be and giving them the reassurance that it might not look perfect on day one, but given the time to develop, one day it might do.” The energy, enthusiasm and extraordinary way of thinking that entrepreneurs bring to their philanthropy can be transformational, Harrington adds. So it’s important such clients don’t lose heart over their giving. One way to avoid this is to introduce them to other clients who have already experienced that.
HIGH STAKES? Put like that, the role of wealth manager or a specialist tasked with advising someone on philanthropic giving sounds overwhelming. Not so, says Harrington. “Many [philanthropy advisers] have worked in the charity sector for a while. We’ve lived and breathed it. But you don’t have to be an expert in everything. Part of my job is knowing who can help, who to talk to, or networks where your clients may be able to meet with peers, talk to people who’ve been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.” If the social or environmental problem concerned poses a seemingly overwhelming challenge, and the road to a solution is long, there’s a risk of losing money without making a tangible impact. Bird believes that objectives and conventional corporate governance can help to mitigate that risk. “It’s about checking that philanthropic objectives remain on course,” he explains. “Overambitious giving can become a bit of a mess very quickly. I would say that risk mitigation is about the structure, the governance of that structure, ensuring that
Interest in solving environmental issues – to do with climate change, for instance – is on the rise among philanthropists
you’re making a business model and that it’s well-thought out, well-controlled and professionally advised.” He recommends the foundation model for giving because of the degree of control it affords the philanthropist. As for wealth managers, Bird says the philanthropically inclined should be treated like any other client. “We are a regulated business, so we’d have to follow our handbook. We have to be comfortable about the source of wealth and what clients expect about what the underlying activities would be, by activity, asset class and jurisdiction. “We’re doing everything we would do with a corporate client. For us, this is another client, just with a different strategic objective.” In the world of philanthropy, money really can make all the difference, and the advisers involved in facilitating that process are in the privileged position of helping to make that happen. Encouragement, with a dash of realism, can help inspire and direct the enthusiasm of the ultra-wealthy and create meaningful change in the world. n JACK FLANAGAN is a freelance writer
Six questions to help a client identify potential beneficiaries 1. What do you want to be known for? 2. Do you want to contribute to the communities you lived in, where you’ve worked, and where your wealth was created, or do you want to work overseas on one of many key issues? 3. Would you rather let 1,000 flowers bloom by giving to or creating a scholarship?
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Some people are inclined to make giving almost a secondary career, being actively involved in the process, other people might just be trying to get money out the door
Studying a donor’s motivations are the building blocks to successful giving
4. Do you want to fund new, innovative start-up models or would you prefer to support well-established models? 5. What resources do you want to bring to your philanthropy, and over what time period? 6. How involved do you want to be in your investment?
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Invest for good: deliver returns and drive change through sustainable investing UBS is one of the world’s largest private banks and winner of multiple awards, including Global Best Overall Private Banking Services.1 Rachel Whittaker, Director of Sustainable Investment at UBS Wealth Management in Zurich, and Robert Broughton, Senior Client Advisor at UBS Wealth Management in Jersey, present a guide to the basic elements of this growing area of investment What is sustainable investing?
Sustainable investing is an investment approach that incorporates considerations of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into investment decisions. It is important to remember that sustainable investors still expect to achieve returns, which differs from philanthropic investors, who may be willing to sacrifice partial or full returns in order to achieve a measurable environmental or social (E&S) impact. There are three different strategies that a sustainable investor can take to achieve their goals and each strategy will depend on the motivation of the individual involved: 1. Impact Investing: An investor will include investments in their portfolio that intend to generate measurable E&S impact alongside a financial return. 2. Integration: An investor will integrate ESG factors into traditional investment processes to improve portfolio risk/return. 3. Exclusion: An investor will exclude companies or industries from their investment portfolio that are not aligned with their values.
How do investments have an impact? All investments have an impact, be it positive or negative. With sustainable investment, an individual can have an influence in one of three ways: 1. Financing: Investors can choose to directly finance impactful companies or projects; for example, by investing
venture capital in an education technology firm focused on improving access for underprivileged populations. 2. Stewardship: Beyond the provision of capital, investors can influence the companies they invest in to maximise environmental or social good. Investors can, for example, engage with management in order to persuade companies to adopt more sustainable practices. If the effect of these efforts can be measured and traced back to the investors’ actions, this may be considered impact investing. 3. Signalling: Finally, simply by investing in companies that investors believe are having a positive impact on people and the planet, and divesting in companies that aren’t, investors can signal to the market that ESG factors matter. If enough investors do the same, this can lead to positive change.
What is the future for sustainable investing?
In 2016, $23trn of global assets were managed sustainably. This is a significant portion of the total value of global stock exchanges that were valued at $69trn in 2017. According to a 2017 survey of institutional investors, 80% considered ESG criteria to be a major component of their investment strategy and the majority cited financial considerations as a key driver in their decision. A total of 69% stated that integrating ESG considerations improved returns, while 68% believed that it reduced volatility.2 Sustainable investing is no longer a niche
Above: Robert Broughton and Rachel Whittaker investment theme and, at UBS, we want to shape the future of sustainable investing. We believe these investments can deliver returns with less risk to your money and we are confident that sustainable investing will soon become one of the world’s most widely accepted ways of investing.3, 4 Furthermore, as the world’s leading wealth manager, we feel responsible for helping change things for the better. We have the capital, solutions and expertise to make a big difference globally. n
FIND OUT MORE
If you would like more information on how UBS Wealth Management in Jersey can support your social investment opportunities, please contact: Robert Broughton, Senior Client Advisor UBS AG, Jersey Branch 1 IFC, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3BX 01534 701107 robert.broughton@ubs.com
Euromoney Private Banking Survey 2019 Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, Market Watch ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies, Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment, Gunnar Friede, Timo Busch, Alexander Bassen, 2015 4 Introducing the Impact Investing Benchmark, Global Impact Investing Network and Cambridge Associates, 2015 1
2 3
© UBS AG, Jersey Branch is authorised and regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission for the conduct of banking, funds and investment business. UBS AG, Jersey Branch is a branch of UBS AG (a public company limited by shares, incorporated in Switzerland whose registered offices are at Aeschenvorstadt 1, CH-4051, Basel and Bahnhofstrasse 45, CH-8001 Zurich) with its principal place of business at 1 IFC, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3BX. Terms and Conditions are available upon request. © UBS 2019. All rights reserved. www.ubs.com/jersey
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may/june 2019 29
Alternative assets
Passion The rich and wealthy have long been known for investing their money in so-called passion assets, such as art, cars and fine wine. But a new generation of wealthy players, with new attitudes and a social conscience, are fuelling change Words: Jon Watkins JUST OUTSIDE ROMANIA’S capital of Bucharest is a public viewing facility from which car enthusiasts and historians can cast an eye over 250 of the world’s most historic, rare and exotic cars – sorted by theme and perfectly presented. The cars form the Tiriac Collection, the private car collection of Ion Tiriac, a Romanian businessman and former professional tennis and ice hockey player. Following tennis success as a player, coach and manager, Tiriac founded a private bank, the first of its kind in post-Communist Romania, which turned him into the richest man in the country. Investment in his passion for automobiles soon followed. Tiriac is one of many wealthy investors who choose to invest their money in ‘passion assets’ – which traditionally range from
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cars and castles to fine art, wine and yachts. Private bank Coutts, which tracks the performance of such assets through its Passion Index, has seen clear trends in investment in and performance of these types of assets over recent years (see box page 33). Although classic cars, for example, dropped out of favour in terms of popularity in 2016, overall they have remained the top-performing asset for super-rich investors over the long term. In fact, returns on investments in classic cars have risen by more than 330% over the 12-year life of the index. A new classic car world record price was set in August 2017 as a result of the $22.6m sale of a 1950s Aston Martin DBR1. So-called ‘billionaire properties’, classed by Coutts as properties worth more than $10m, have also grown in popularity as a place
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Alternative assets
players EXPERIENCE DRIVE While these traditional passion assets and investment classes continue to offer strong yields, a number of other trends are emerging around where the wealthy are putting their money and the way they are purchasing assets. Paul Welch is founder and CEO of Largemortgageloans.com, a business that initially helped investors to raise funds for purchasing high-value real estate but has since made a move towards jets, yachts, cars and other assets. One shift we are seeing at present, he says, is around the way high-net-worth individuals are making purchases. “It might seem strange that a billionaire wants to come to a business like ours to raise money to buy an asset, when they could clearly buy it outright. But if you can raise credit fixed at around 2% for five years, make a 10%–20% return and hold on to your money in the process, there’s little risk and plenty of opportunity,” he says. “So we are certainly seeing a trend there, whether that’s in yachts, art, cars or jets.” Another emerging trend identified by Welch is the shift from biggest and best towards experiences. “It’s nothing new for people to want the largest yacht in the harbour, the rarest cars in their
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Instead of just wanting the biggest yachts, investors now want them to be able to go to places they previously couldn’t
garage, or the finest art on their walls,” he says. “But, increasingly, there’s a move towards the experience. And I think that will continue as we see more millennials – who are renowned for being focused on experience – coming into the market. “Yachts are a great example. Instead of just wanting the biggest yachts, investors now want them to be able to go to places they previously couldn’t – which might require the hull being reinforced to allow you to go to Antarctica, for example. One client has had a boat built to enable his family to go to see the Titanic.” Bruce Maltwood, Director of Sarnia Yachts, echoes that view.
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for the wealthy to invest their money. Since 2005, Mumbai has been the stand-out star, with properties worth more than £10m rising in value by almost 200%. There are other assets attracting growing interest, too. Rare musical instruments provided a 16% return in the 2016 index, which also tracked fine art, rugs, carpets and coins.
Alternative assets
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32 may/june 2019
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Alternative assets “We are seeing boats getting bigger generally,” he says. “If you walk down the pontoons of Monaco, the average size of a boat is around the 40-metre mark. Ten years ago, it was more like 25 metres. “But for me the real shift is around what these boats are being used for. It’s about the experience you get from them and where you can go – we’re seeing more boats being built to go to the poles, for example. “Another example is Project REV, which is an exploration yacht that’s being equipped with teaching rooms, species capture and analysis tools and a system for turning plastics into fuel.” Despite this shift towards experience, Maltwood says the popularity of yachts among the wealthy has reached something of a plateau. “We’re not seeing huge growth in the number of yachts, perhaps because it’s not hugely palatable right now,” he says. “We live in a very transparent period, whereby you can pretty easily identify the owner of most yachts in the harbour. In these days of post-austerity, it’s not particularly helpful for business owners who’ve just had to make job losses and defend under-funded pension funds to be seen sipping champagne on a £10m giant yacht in Monaco.”
WEALTHY CONSCIENCE The rise of millennials among the wealthy, together with an increased awareness of ethical and environmental issues more generally, is creating another shift in how the rich spend their wealth, according to Wayne Atkinson, Group Partner, Guernsey, at law firm Collas Crill. “What we’re seeing now are two types of wealthy investor,” he says. “We have those who are spending their money on the slightly more quirky collections – the cars, the fine art, the wine – and those who are focused on ethical investing, which is definitely rising in popularity.
“I think they are two sides of the same coin – the driver is always that you want something that’s more interesting to talk about beyond simply, ‘I have a mixed basket of real estate that returns a good yield’. “You want to talk about it because it’s interesting. It may be interesting because it’s cool. It may be interesting because it makes a difference. Or it may be both.” Atkinson continues: “What’s more, some of the asset classes are also moving towards ESG [environmental, social and governance] anyway – for example, fine wine, where the wine makers are committed to sustainable producing. I’m pretty sure that trend will continue.” Ian Dembinski, Head of Private Office at wealth manager Rathbone, agrees that the big emerging trend at the moment is around ethical investing – and that’s likely to continue at a rapid pace. “We’re seeing an intergenerational shift right now and our challenge is how we appeal to a younger generation with different buying powers,” he says. “The millennials and the younger generation simply have a greater interest in impact investing – investing in a way that mirrors their ethical values while still obtaining profit. That means we’re looking for profit with purpose. “And that stretches right the way through to them wanting to see those values reflected in us as a business.” Dembinski adds: “Of course, the main driver for this trend continuing is that these funds are no longer just interesting because of their ethical values; they are now performing well in their own right. “Investors can now find investments they believe in ethically and which return a profit – and that’s a very strong proposition for anyone with wealth.” n JON WATKINS is a freelance finance journalist
How traditional passion assets have performed in recent years
Auction: Shutterstock
Trophy property Billionaire property prices grew rapidly from 2008 to 2012, increasing nearly 40%. However, after rebounding strongly following the recession, billionaire property and leisure property have both delivered modest returns in recent years.
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Classic cars Classic cars have provided the healthiest returns since 2005, with average prices rising more than fourfold. However, after increasing rapidly in 2013 and 2014, returns for classic cars fell in both 2015 and 2016.
Precious items Classic watch prices have recovered in recent years to stand at more than double their 2005 level, although they are 10% lower than their 2012 peak. Jewellery reached a new high in 2016, 150% since 2005.
Fine art The value of traditional Chinese works of art has fluctuated, but this is the only category in fine art for which prices have risen significantly since the financial crisis, increasing 70% since 2008. Source: Coutts Passion Index 2017 (the last available results)
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Africa
Africa’s moment With the political uncertainty around Brexit, US-China tensions, populism in the EU and economic volatility in ASEAN, the Channel Islands are heading to africa to seek out new opportunities
Words: Dr DesnĂŠ Masie
Cape Town, South Africa
34 may/june 2019
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AFRICA IS BECOMING an increasingly strategic continent for the Channel Islands – politically and economically. In September 2018, China committed £46bn to African partnerships at the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation. Also in September 2018, the European Union (EU) pledged £35bn to the continent to help deepen economic relations, boost investment and create jobs. It seems a folly for the Channel Islands to be left behind, particularly since these waves of activity will require financing, which both islands are expert at facilitating. In the past few years, interest in Africa has surged for the islands’ wealth managers, with wealth flows increasing in both directions between Africa and Guernsey and Jersey. This has been supported by an already strong presence of South African companies on both islands. Private banks including Nedbank, Investec and Standard Bank, and asset managers and insurers such as Ashburton and Momentum, all have operations here. There are also a number of Channel Islands
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companies in Africa, such as JTC and Sanne. In addition to this, there is a pivot in economic and political strategy in Guernsey and Jersey, which has seen the islands more determined to step out into the wider world on their own. This is not just an insurance policy against the unknown fallout of Brexit – indeed, a strong UK economy is both good and desirable for the Channel Islands – but it is also a strategy to hedge against slower growth in the global economy. Paul Wilkes, Group Partner at law firm Collas Crill, says: “While links to the UK are great, as a business and a jurisdiction, we are very aware of that reliance on the relationship with the UK, and with Europe to a greater extent, because things are not diversified. On the funds side, we would like to broaden that appeal or leverage the contacts that are already [in other jurisdictions]. In terms of the hit list, the
UK has been number one, and has been for a number of years. The next three are Asia, the US and the Middle East, and the fourth, especially on the funds side, is South Africa – and this spearheads into Africa more generally.” As a partner to Africa, Guernsey and Jersey are expanding what they offer, which includes a stable and innovative operating environment for other jurisdictions amidst global turbulence. Lindsay Bateman, Business Development Director at Brooks
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Africa
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Africa
Macdonald, which has offices on both islands, says: “One thing we can offer investors who are looking to invest in Africa, or African investors looking to internationalise, is a sense of stability. Both islands are very stable, socially, politically and economically, and well regulated and outward looking.”
Kenyatta Avenue, a central business street in Nairobi, Kenya
Bateman has been in Jersey for 18 years, but is originally from South Africa – the continent’s deepest and most liquid capital market. The relationship between it and the Channel Islands has been a strong and long-running one. “For over two decades, the South African relationship has been especially significant, and we have a lot of South Africans living and working in Jersey,” says Allan Wood, Business Development Director of Jersey Finance. “But what we are doing now is just the tip of the iceberg. In years to come, we expect to see a significant amount of growth in corporate work.” For Guernsey too, the South African relationship is now two decades old and has proved important. Wilkes says: “To date, it’s been more about outflows – institutions or individuals who want part of their wealth out of the South African economy as a currency and a political hedge, given some instability. “South African managers [will therefore] set up an offshore fund to complement their South African fund, so that the client is their client both inside and outside of South Africa. That’s a pretty well-trodden path for South African fund managers. “Beyond that, there is growing activity in private equity and venture capital investment in South Africa by international investors.” Most recently, the South African relationship has also helped to facilitate relationships in other African countries. This is certainly the model followed by the Guernsey fiduciary services business, Oak Trust. Its CEO, Mark Chasey, says: “We started in South Africa and built our client base into Botswana, Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, and we still have a lot of clients in Zimbabwe.”
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TWO-WAY STREET Crucially, the islands also want to facilitate capital flows into Africa. “As we move into more markets, we’ve realised Jersey wants to be a part of Africa’s future,” says Wood. He explains that the model envisaged for this is as a conduit for foreign direct investment (FDI). This vision was outlined as early as 2014
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in Jersey Finance’s publication, Jersey’s Value to Africa. Wood says there is an increasingly diversified mix of activity in both directions – evident from Jersey Finance’s recent Africa roadshow to the three key economies of South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria – which includes mining in South Africa, wealthy individuals in Nigeria, and a balance of inflows and outflows in Kenya. Wilkes concedes that there are some constraints in financial services outside of South Africa, but adds that there is some potential in inward investments in private equity in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya. “It’s not a huge wave at the moment, but slowly and surely,” he says. Justine Wilkinson, Director at Jersey trust, funds and pensions company Fairway Group, takes a long-term view on Africa. “Fairway is able to capitalise on this opportunity [by] making informed riskbased decisions rather than discounting clients purely due to the jurisdiction to which they are connected,” she says. She advises anyone curious about the African opportunity to “give it a go”. “There are 54 countries out there waiting to be explored and huge opportunities as a result,” she adds. This reconfiguration of the flow of capital to facilitate investment into Africa has in recent years been very successfully championed by the Africa Financial Services Investment Conference (AFSIC), a popular annual investment conference for those with an interest in the continent, which is run by Rupert McCammon, founder and Director of Jersey-based financial services firm Adventis.
But the stress on capital flowing in both directions is underpinned by a difficult issue that both islands are working to tackle – the perception of international financial centres as tax havens, fuelled by exposés such as the Panama Papers. This is not an issue islanders shy away from. In fact, they are keen to talk about the work they are doing to recalibrate their image, particularly with their strong and nimble anti-money laundering framework, their listing as cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes by the EU, their recent economic substance laws and the legitimacy of a tax-neutral economic policy strategy.
there is growing activity in private equity and venture capital investment in South Africa by international investors
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STRONG RELATIONSHIP
Africa
EXPERT VIEW
Last December, Senator Ian Gorst, External Relations Minister of Jersey, visited Kenya to sign an asset-sharing agreement to repatriate funds of around $4m that found their way illicitly to Jersey. The States of Jersey commented: “Jersey is custodian to $1.7trn and currently provides up to 1.5% of all global FDI into Africa. We want more of this to go from Jersey into Kenya and [this agreement] would greatly help facilitate these investment flows.” Stephen Whale, Group Director at JTC, has been visiting Africa for the past 27 years. Most of his work there has been in the private client sector, and he also helps multi-generational family businesses in east Africa with capital-raising. JTC has substantial private client and fund administration businesses in South Africa, as well as west and east Africa. “Jersey has done a good job in saying that it wants legitimate money going out and in, and deployed in legitimate ways,” Whale says. “But we want to be certain that if we return the money, it is used to good effect.”
GIVING BACK Giving back on a more day-to-day basis on a very diverse continent is also what inspires many islanders about Africa. Wood says: “Using Jersey’s skill set, 50 years of experience in finance, and deploying that to African jurisdictions is very exciting. When we look back in years to come, we can be proud of the wealth we helped create.” Jersey Finance is also hoping to boost returns to society alongside returns to investors through impact investing. The facilitation of financial inclusion via fintech has also seen exciting venture capital and impact investments. Goldman Sachs invested over $50m in South African fintech Jumo in September. Mark Healey, Director at fiduciary and administrations group VG, also sees prospects for growth through financial inclusion with Islamic finance in Africa – especially Nigeria, which has a population of 200 million, half of them Muslims. Africa is not without its challenges, but improved governance is making things easier. However, where there is great need, there is great opportunity. n DR DESNÉ MASIE is an economist and thought leader in international finance, specialising in policy, regulation and fintech
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Allan Wood, Head of Business Development – Western Markets, Jersey Finance “Africa’s growing elite has added 19,000 millionaires over the past decade, with total private wealth totalling $2.3trn. These figures are predicted to increase by 34% over the next decade, reaching $3.1trn by the end of 2027. African entrepreneurs are seeking wealth structuring advice, whether it be trust structuring, asset management or private banking – all areas of strength for Jersey. “Jersey’s relationship with Africa is not a new one. Jersey has, over many decades, earned a positive reputation across the continent for its first-class private wealth expertise. This relationship is evolving – and now Jersey businesses are moving into new areas such as philanthropy, impact investing and alternative fund work. “Jersey Finance’s strategy remains absolutely focused on Africa and, thanks to our targeted marketing activity and events programme, we continue to set ourselves apart among IFCs in key African markets. Last year, we held events across Africa to build relationships with key gatekeepers in Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town and Johannesburg. It’s vital that we maintain this focus in 2019 – already this year we’ve undertaken a number of events in Kenya and South Africa and have a full agenda planned for the remainder of the year.” Natasha Kapp, Partner, Trusts and Private Wealth, Carey Olsen (Guernsey) “Private wealth accumulation continues to grow globally year-on-year, with growth in Africa’s ultra-wealthy population expected to outpace Europe and the US in the next decade. Ultra-high-net-worth African families are becoming increasingly mobile and take a global view. There is, accordingly, increased demand for offshore wealth management services for African entrepreneurs and wealthy families. “For Guernsey, there are a number of opportunities in the provision of cross-border wealth strategies, including in the areas of wealth management, succession planning and inter-generational wealth transfer, philanthropy, private investment funds, impact investing, innovation and technology. “Guernsey is an attractive jurisdiction for African private wealth, in particular South Africa. Indeed, many well-known South African financial services firms have an established presence on the island and have strong local relationships and networks in the region built up over time. “Risks are inherently high in Africa. Wealthy entrepreneurs and families want to safeguard at least some of their wealth and investments outside their home country. Guernsey structures can offer a safe haven and mitigate against those risks by facilitating access to overseas markets, hedge against currency risk and political instability. Guernsey’s expertise coupled with local knowledge and a reputation as a stable and well-regulated jurisdiction are a real draw card for clients from Africa.” Dean Douglas, Client Services Director, IQ-EQ “It is key to view Africa through the lens of being a diverse continent made up of vastly different countries, each faced with unique opportunities and risks. On the whole, Africa offers a wealth of opportunities to global investors, with a multitude of booming economies fuelled by a bounty of natural resources and vast tracts of fertile agricultural land. The fact that the continent is poised to enjoy a huge youth demographic dividend will go a long way in supporting its growth. “However, at the same time, it cannot be denied that there are certain obstacles in the way of tapping the immense potential of the continent, including elements of political instability, absence of a cohesive governance framework and recurrent security issues in some economies. In this context, the development of this emerging region calls for a concerted inflow of foreign direct investment, which makes it key to match opportunities with investors and provide the necessary channels to facilitate such investments. At IQ-EQ, we act as a catalyst for both ends of the spectrum – boosting inward investment, on one hand, as well as providing wealth management services to maximise the return on such investment, on the other.”
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Francis Clayton, Executive Director at Quilter Cheviot Investment Management in Jersey, on how the game of Monopoly explains investing’s most important concept
DO YOU UNDERSTAND investing? Most people I know would probably say no. They might understand when their investment manager or financial adviser takes them through a summary, but an unequivocal yes is unlikely when it comes to thinking of themselves as an investment expert. Yet the most important part of investing – balancing risk and return – is something we do every day. Indeed, the best example of this is probably something you played regularly growing up. It’s Monopoly, the property trading game for players aged eight or over, which is still going strong in what is now its ninth decade. In Monopoly, the more properties and houses you buy, the higher your potential return. But if you take too much risk, you become vulnerable to having to sell or mortgage your assets when you land on other people’s properties. Monopoly is a perfect example of trying to strike the right balance between risk and reward. As an investor, you face a similar dilemma. The quickest way to grow your money is to take lots of risk, potentially allocating your entire portfolio to the highest-risk asset, company shares. But if shares perform poorly and fall in value, this is also the fastest way to lose money. The dilemma of how to balance risk and reward is one that my clients frequently ask me about. So how do we get the balance right and make sure an investment portfolio is shaped appropriately? Let’s turn our attention back to the Monopoly game. Each set of properties has advantages and disadvantages. The browns are cheap to buy and build on, but
the rent on them is quite low. The dark blues are expensive to develop, but are more than capable of knocking a player out financially. Which set you prefer ultimately depends on your financial situation. If you’ve conserved cash throughout the game, developing the greens looks like a smart move. You’ve got plenty of surplus cash, which you can’t do much with, and you might win the game if someone lands on your property. Those who splash the cash early on might want a cheaper development option, making the light blues ideal, which gives them a chance to steadily build up their cash reserves. What you’re really doing here is judging risk and return and your best strategy for winning the game. This is exactly what an investor does when they think about the balance of risk and return in an investment portfolio, though the objective in real life is to meet your financial goals rather than win a game. Now, my Monopoly analogy isn’t perfect. There are 100 voices in my head telling me to caveat this piece and point out why investing is not Monopoly (there’s only one asset class in the board game and so on). To do this would be to get in the way of my broader point though – investing is about balancing risk and return, something the average person does surprisingly often in real life, when you think about it. It is not inherently hard to understand investment concepts. The challenge is more often in the detail of whether something is a good investment or not. Occasionally, people change their mind about the balance
of their investments. During the final three months of last year, for example, we saw an unusually fast drop in markets, which prompted several of my clients to decide that they actually wanted to take less risk in future. I reworked their portfolios and, while their returns are likely to be lower in future, they are happier with their portfolios overall. Regardless of the mix of risk and return in your portfolio, it’s important not to change it too frequently. People who change the make-up of their portfolio in response to every change in markets tend to buy high and sell low – the exact opposite of what you are supposed to do. I would always suggest people take the amount of risk with which they are 100% comfortable, rather than being 90% comfortable and hoping any downturn isn’t too aggressive. After all, investing might be like Monopoly, but real life uses actual money. n
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For further information, please visit www.quiltercheviot.com or contact: Tel: +44 1534 506 070 Fax: +44 1534 768 108
Investors should remember that the value of investments, and the income from them, can go down as well as up. Investors may not recover what they invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Any mention of a specific security should not be interpreted as a solicitation to buy or sell a specific security. Quilter Cheviot (Jersey) Quilter Cheviot and Quilter Cheviot Investment Management are trading names of Quilter Cheviot Limited. Quilter Cheviot is registered in England with number 01923571, registered office at One Kingsway, London WC2B 6AN. Quilter Cheviot Limited is a member of the London Stock Exchange, authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority and regulated under the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998 by the Jersey Financial Services Commission for the conduct of investment business and funds services business in Jersey, and by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission under the Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 1987 to carry on investment business in the bailiwick of Guernsey. Accordingly, in some respects the regulatory system that applies will be different from that of the United Kingdom.
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may/june 2019 39
Advertising feature, in association with Locate Jersey
Profile
Pictured l-r: Sarah Colley, Alice Turian and Camilla Starr
Sarah Colley, Managing Partner, First Intuition, Channel Islands After forging a successful career in professional training in Guernsey, Sarah Colley decided that it was the right time to bring the concept of First Intuition – the UK-wide professional services training network – to Jersey Give us an insight into what First Intuition does? First Intuition is a network of ownermanaged professional services training businesses, based across the UK and now in the Channel Islands too. Through faceto-face teaching and online learning, we deliver a broad range of accountancy and company secretarial qualifications and professional development courses. The company began in the UK in 2007. Along with the other Channel Island Partners, Camilla Starr and Alice Turian, I established First Intuition in Guernsey in 2017. I had 16 years’ experience at another
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business study centre in Guernsey but felt there was a gap in the market for a more entrepreneurial, personalised professional services centre that could support the local finance sector and businesses more widely. Then, in 2018, we secured a key panisland client, so we started to look into establishing an office in Jersey. Being an owner-managed business is fantastic, in that it gives us real flexibility to deliver a highly bespoke service, while being part of a network gives us valuable support and access to some amazing minds. We all place a real emphasis on putting the student first.
What made you consider Jersey as a market to move into? We had been so well received in Guernsey and, with the new client, it just made sense to make First Intuition a pan-island study centre. There’s a clear need for cutting-edge professional training in both islands and a lot of the businesses we work with, in finance and other sectors, are pan-island anyway, so it’s a sensible step for us to be able to offer a consistent and familiar service across both islands. Jersey is a world-renowned international finance centre and it’s very sophisticated and internationally dynamic as a business
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centre. So it stands to reason that every firm here wants the best training for its staff, to ensure that they meet the demands of the industry and can compete effectively in a global marketplace. That demand has given us a really strong platform from which to grow our business. But we also see that our approach – to put the student first and ensure that every individual gets the unique attention they deserve – is an approach that’s really well received in Jersey too. What became clear to us when visiting Jersey over the past year was that it was an island with a strong ethos of being open for business, that embraces healthy competition and choice, and that was a really positive indicator for us. All this gives us good reason to believe we can be really successful as part of Jersey’s business landscape. Was the relocation process straightforward? We had always had an intention to make our business pan-island, but the move has actually happened a lot quicker than we might have anticipated at first. Our success in securing our first significant client in Jersey was a real driver and focused our minds – we’ve all learned a lot of new skills in the process of establishing our office here. But the support we’ve received from our contacts and partners in Jersey has been fantastic too. For instance, there are differences in regulation between Jersey and Guernsey when it comes to setting up a business, so getting assistance on that has been invaluable. Locate Jersey was incredibly helpful during the process of establishing us in the island, and the local estate agents were fantastic in helping us to secure our wonderful space in good time. We were very lucky to find the perfect location for our offices and classrooms at 1 Seale Street in the centre of St Helier. It couldn’t have been easier, really. All the partners live in Guernsey, but we fly over to Jersey on a regular basis to support our Jersey team. It’s important to us that both of the islands get our equal attention, and the welcome we’ve had from existing and new contacts has been amazing. Jersey and Guernsey are both beautiful islands for work and lifestyle, so I’m incredibly lucky to be able to enjoy both of them on a regular basis.
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The First Intuition team in Jersey
How do you see your business evolving? Clearly, we want to be the provider of choice for professional services and company secretarial studies and we feel confident that our high success rate, as well as our entrepreneurial and personable approach, will help us achieve that. Our vision is absolutely to grow the business across both islands. In Jersey, we feel there is real potential for evolution. Businesses here are clearly focused on upskilling and in bringing in new skill sets to their organisations. There’s a genuine appreciation here that being able to demonstrate a commitment to training and cutting-edge skills can be a real differentiator in the marketplace – both in terms of capabilities and as an employer brand. All that is really good news and exciting for us. However, it’s important to us that we grow at a pace that’s comfortable and that doesn’t risk us diluting our personal approach. Across our network, First Intuition focuses on quality rather than speed of growth, so we will continue to offer our keystone courses, face-to-face and online. We do see ourselves growing our team in Jersey in the future, and getting the right people to join us on our journey is vital. We’ve already started that process ahead of our official launch in 2019, as we look to put ourselves in a strong position to serve local businesses and play a role in helping them to grow over the coming years. n
What became clear to us when visiting Jersey over the past year was that it was an island with a strong ethos of being open for business
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This advertising feature was produced in partnership with Locate Jersey. Visit www.locatejersey.com
may/june 2019 41
Family offices
Keeping up with the Joneses As wealthy families become multi-generational, multi-jurisdictional and more complex, the family office is evolving to meet their changing needs with a more Sophisticated and multi-disciplinary offer Words: Sharon Gethings
FOR MOST OF US, a roof over our head and
a good education for our children are the extent of our family financial worries. But for the seriously wealthy, asset management can be complicated and many are now choosing to hand the responsibility over to family offices. The number of single family offices – which, as the name suggests, look after the wealth of a single family – has increased ten-fold across the globe since 2008 and, according to market intelligence firm Campden Wealth, currently manage assets in excess of $4trn. There are several reasons for this growth, but the main one is the increase in personal wealth – a trend set to continue. Knight Frank’s 2019 Wealth Report says the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals – those with wealth in excess of $30m – will grow by 22% over the next five years. Rebecca Bettany, Senior Director at JTC Private Office in Guernsey, says: “Today, there’s more money in private hands – historically, it would have been held by governments or institutions. As wealth grows, families grow more international, with different branches, so the transactions are bigger. Consequently, families are having to professionalise the way they manage their affairs.”
The blueprint for the family office can be seen as early as the sixth century when a king steward would be appointed to oversee royal wealth. The aristocracy drew on this idea, recognising the value
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ROOTS IN ROYAL WEALTH
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ogier.com
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. Legal Services British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Guernsey Hong Kong Jersey London Luxembourg Shanghai Tokyo
Family offices
of the stewardship of family wealth, with family offices commonly being used to run landed estates. The modern version of the family office was first seen in the 19th century. In 1838, the family of financier and art collector JP Morgan founded the House of Morgan to manage the family assets. In 1882, the Rockefellers founded their own family office to manage the family assets. The Rockefellers’ family office exists to this day and now provides services to other families.
WHAT IS A FAMILY OFFICE?
CHANNEL ISLANDS BOOM As to why many are choosing to locate their family office in the Channel Islands, Andy Sloan, Deputy Chief Executive, Strategy, at Guernsey Finance, believes it’s a response to market forces. “It’s a reflection of the fact that in the decade post-2008, net private wealth doubled in nominal terms compared with GDP,” he says. “Companies are turning to servicing what is an evolving market segment.” Robert Moore, Business Development Director at Jersey Finance, believes popularity in Jersey is driven by the island’s mature and well-regulated business environment – which is in part the result of the
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The high operating cost of a family office – at least $1m a year – is one reason to set up a multi-family office. Several families can pool their wealth and have assets managed under one umbrella jurisdiction’s forward-thinking response to the global financial crisis 11 years ago. “Although family offices often fall outside financial services regulation, the activities they undertake are very often subject to it, meaning they may need to adopt internal policies and procedures in relation to matters such as AML, risk and regulatory compliance,” says Moore. “As a responsible and well-regulated jurisdiction, we are at the forefront when it comes to applying and adopting global regulatory standards. Jersey is one of the best regulated international financial centres globally, having been acknowledged by independent assessments from some of the world’s leading bodies, including the World Bank and IMF, as well as scoring top marks from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on tax transparency.” The Channel Islands are also in a prime location geographically, being almost equidistant between the Americas and Asia, says Siobhan Riley, Head of Trusts and Private Wealth at law firm Carey Olsen’s Jersey
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The family office has several forms. A family may begin with an embedded family office (EFO), an informal structure linked to the family business, whose chief finance officer is entrusted with family office duties. For privacy and tax compliance reasons, they may then want to separate their private and business wealth by using an external single family office (SFO). This is a family-owned organisation that manages the investments, fiduciary trusts and estate for one family. Many also offer a lifestyle or concierge-type service. “When families relocate to Jersey, we’ll do everything from help clear their property through customs through to sitting on the boards of their companies,” says Bettany. “It can be organising the dog walker or organising the intellectual property of a family business. It’s very wide ranging.” As the generations evolve and branches of the family become more independent, investment activities within the SFO can separate, leading to the emergence of a multi-family office (MFO). Sometimes MFOs will serve a few non-related families. The high operating cost of a family office – according to EY’s 2016 Family Office Guide, a minimum of $1m a year – is another reason to set up an MFO. Several families can pool their wealth and have assets managed under one umbrella. Adrian Relph, a Director at trust and corporate services firm New Street Management in Guernsey, says families are looking to these structures not only to protect and enhance their wealth, but because they often want to make a difference in the world, be it through philanthropic causes or impact investing. “These new ventures in unfamiliar areas require specific skills, experience and focus,” he says.
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Family offices
office. “This maximises investment windows within each of the market time zones and means you can be on call for family members whichever side of the world they happen to live on.” Family offices are certainly proving useful as a vehicle for attracting inward investment to the Channel Islands – and Jersey is making the most of it. “Locate Jersey has worked closely with Jersey Finance to raise awareness about the Jersey proposition,” says Paul Burrows, Locate Jersey’s Inward Investment Manager. “This includes being recognised as a centre of excellence for professional services, with globally renowned accountants, bankers and lawyers; having well-developed business links with international markets; and having modern office developments providing a high standard of workspace with island-wide connectivity.”
TRUST COMPANY VS FAMILY OFFICE Whether this preponderance of family offices will push the more traditional trust companies out of the investment space remains to be seen.
Some family offices are already starting to look like multi-disciplinary partnerships of expert accountants, lawyers, tax experts, compliance professionals and investment advisers
Relph says: “There remains a core inter-relation between family offices and trust companies. Specialists in the fiduciary industry have the experience to deal with complex legal and tax needs, and manage diverse asset classes and holding structures.” However, JTC Private Office’s Bettany says clients might not want a trust, or they might need some help working out who is the best trust provider. Family offices can help with that. “A lot of private individuals are choosing to invest through funds or in their own name,” she adds. “For example, UK property was always held in trusts and now, in most cases, it makes sense to own that property in your own name. Family offices can take away the hassle of handling it all.”
WHAT NEXT? As to how we’re likely to see the family office developing in the future, Relph maintains that few family offices are large enough or have the skills or desire to cover every facet of wealth management. He believes a symbiotic relationship will continue to exist between family offices and professional service providers. But he adds: “How the family office market develops in the future may depend upon the views of the regulator and how they look to supervise their activities.” Guernsey Finance’s Andy Sloan takes a different view, seeing the professionalisation of family offices potentially leading to less use of intermediaries such as investment managers. “You’re seeing this kind of direct investment through the family office, particularly in the private equity space, where they’re finding a faster route. This reflects a sophistication of client requirements and a global, multi-generational, multijurisdictional approach to family office services.” Riley, from Carey Olsen, believes the number of family offices will continue to increase and agrees they will become even more sophisticated. “Some family offices are already starting to look like multidisciplinary partnerships of expert accountants, lawyers, tax experts, compliance professionals and investment advisers.” She even sees them morphing into whole lifestyle operations. “Family offices will increasingly help to educate the family’s young and manage non-financial issues such as cybersecurity, wellbeing and the family’s media profile.” n SHARON GETHINGS is a freelance finance journalist
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The best of both worlds Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management (CGWM) has seen continued success for its Select Portfolio Service (SPS), launched in response to a demand from financial intermediaries for an entry-level, risk-based managed portfolio service. It is available to anyone with more than £100,000 to invest. Tim Sanders, CGWM’s Head of Wealth Management Jersey, explains what it is and why it could be the right solution for offshore intermediaries and their clients
helps to bridge the gap between investing in funds and fully bespoke discretionary portfolios, ordinarily considered for clients with larger investments. It allows investors to benefit from having their money in their own ring-fenced portfolio, which is based according to the level of risk each individual investor is willing to accept. There are four distinct risk-level portfolios available: Cautious, Cautious Balanced, Balanced and Adventurous (see graph).
WHAT EACH PORTFOLIO LOOKS LIKE The select portfolios have their roots in our in-house funds, the CGWM Funds*. Originally launched more than 10 years ago, they now have assets under management exceeding $1bn. A number of our core discretionary strategies are replicated across this fund range, making them a pure expression of our rigorous and highly analytical investment expertise and therefore the perfect building blocks for the SPS. Using portfolio modelling systems, we identified the optimal combination of the CGWM Funds to give the best possible returns for our four different portfolios according to their risk levels. It meant we could harness the investment expertise that underpins the CGWM Funds, including the increased diversification gained by spreading investors’ money across a range of fund managers, rather than investing in stocks, bonds and other securities directly. Using the underlying funds also provides exposure to specialist and geographic areas where an investor might not have the right expertise and knowledge to invest on their own.
A DISCIPLINED FRAMEWORK Whilst this service is a risk-based solution and designed to maximise returns, it is important to understand that it is not riskfree. Through the process of optimisation, in designing portfolios for investors with different risk appetites, we impose rules around how much risk each strategy is permitted to take – and in each instance, we stipulate an upper and lower limit.
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Different risk-level portfolios 10% 9% The greater the potential level of return
THE SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICE (SPS)
8% 7% Adventurous
6%
Balanced
5% Cautious Balanced
4% 3%
Equity Fixed income
Cautious
2%
Cash
1% 0%
0
2
4
6 8 10 The greater level of risk
Depending on prevailing market conditions and our assessment of shortterm opportunities, we will permit more or less risk based on our outlook. So, whilst there is a disciplined framework, there is also scope to adjust our positioning to enhance or protect returns in times of market volatility. As we look back over the life of the SPS, generally speaking we have held a positive view on equity markets. As a result, we have been willing to tolerate slightly higher levels of risk in the belief that an increased allocation to equities would yield improved returns. This means that over time, we have typically exhibited moderately higher levels of risk than our benchmarks. However, importantly, we have always operated comfortably within the tolerances we allow ourselves. The SPS has enjoyed impressive success. Focusing on the sterling portfolio as it has the longest history, each strategy has outperformed its benchmark over every period. Not only is the SPS underpinned by excellent risk-adjusted returns, but it also benefits from our industry-leading support services: ● Clients have access to a dedicated manager, as well as being supported by our in-house client services team and long-standing operations based in the Channel Islands.
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● They can opt to receive periodic reporting and quarterly factsheets. ● They can monitor their portfolios, both via our online portal, Wealth Online, and on our recently launched mobile app. In addition, because the SPS invests through the CGWM Funds, we have developed full look-through reporting to provide investors with a complete and transparent insight into the current positioning of the underlying CGWM Funds. n * The CGWM Funds are ‘funds of funds’ (also known as multi-manager investments). This means they are made up of other investment funds (which are themselves made up of different assets) rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other kinds of securities.
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For more about CGWM’s services in the Channel Islands, please contact Tim Sanders: Email: tim.sanders@canaccord.com Tel: 01534 708090
may/june 2019 47
Cryptocurrencies
Will the real use for
cryptocurrencies please stand up?
Cryptocurrencies started as payments systems, Then became niche financial assets. Now, especially for the Channel Islands, their underlying technology is driving efficiencies in finance CRYPTOCURRENCIES HAVE BEEN on a Words: Paul Bryant
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wild ride. Investor frenzy in 2017 drove the price of Bitcoin – the most common cryptocurrency – to jump by 22 times. Then, in 2018, its price collapsed by 70%. Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business (who predicted the global financial crisis), told the London Speaker Bureau this year: “I have called cryptocurrencies the mother and father of all bubbles now gone bust. The crypto bubble has burst for good and will not recover as these were assets with no intrinsic value.” But the story just won’t go away and the mainstream financial press still can’t resist a good crypto headline. In February 2019, Bloomberg reported: ‘First US pension
funds take the plunge on crypto investing’. However, a look under the bonnet reveals a much more nuanced development. According to Anthony Pompliano, CoFounder and Partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets – which runs the fund into which the pensions in that news story invested – two pension funds each allocated well under 1% of their capital into a venture capital fund that puts 85% of its capital to work investing in blockchainrelated start-ups and a maximum of 15% into cryptocurrencies directly. It indicates a general sentiment among investors – an ultra-cautious approach to cryptocurrencies themselves, with a growing bullishness on the potential of the underlying technology, blockchain, to spur
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Cryptocurrencies dollar has value. But that value isn’t tied to anything other than our belief.” According to the US Department of the Treasury: “Federal Reserve notes are not redeemable in gold, silver or any other commodity, and receive no backing by anything. This has been the case since 1933. The notes have no value for themselves, but for what they will buy.” Pompliano continues: “Bitcoin works the same way. Today, only a small subset of the world’s population believes it has value. These are the crypto enthusiasts. And over time, more and more people will begin to believe it does have value.”
the next wave of crypto asset growth (see page 51 for more on blockchain). Luke Sayer, Senior Associate at law firm Carey Olsen in Guernsey, explains: “I prefer to call them crypto assets as opposed to cryptocurrencies because the majority demonstrate utility qualities as much, if not more than, being viable as a means of exchange. “The real value is going to be in the technology itself. Bitcoin gave us blockchain technology. Ethereum (the second largest crypto asset by market cap) is a decentralised platform that runs smart contracts – applications that run exactly as programmed without the possibility of censorship, fraud or third-party interference. I think about these as assets linked to the underlying technology.”
CURRENCY VISION FALTERS Cryptocurrencies as we now know them started life in 2009, when Satoshi Nakamoto – a pseudonym for the stillunidentified author – published Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. It states: ‘The cost of mediation [payments mediation by banks] increases transaction costs, limiting the minimum practical transaction size and cutting off the possibility for small casual transactions … What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party [a bank].’ (See box overleaf.) Shortly after, Nakamoto released the first Bitcoins. Initially, a crude bargaining process set their value. Etched in Bitcoin folklore is the story of software developer Laszlo Hanyecz, who in 2010, according to an interview in the New York Times, persuaded someone to accept 10,000
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Bitcoins in exchange for two pizzas from Papa John’s. The value of those Bitcoins today would be $40m. But Nakamoto’s vision didn’t pan out. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies haven’t been widely adopted as a means of payment. While it’s easy enough to set up – download one of the many ‘crypto wallet’ apps, deposit funds and theoretically you’re good to go – there are not many merchants that accept it as payment. In his interview with the London Speaker Bureau, Roubini explained why we shouldn’t be surprised. ‘For an asset to be considered a money or currency it must satisfy three criteria: it has to be the unit of account for all transactions and the single numeraire [basic standard by which values are measured] for pricing all goods, services and assets/liabilities. It must be a widely used and cheap means of payments. And it has to be a stable store of value and have stable purchasing power over goods and services. Bitcoin alone – let alone thousands of other “shitcoins” – fails miserably on all criteria.’ Sayer clarifies why not meeting some of these criteria stunts widespread use. “The main impediment is volatility. Imagine taking out a mortgage for £250,000, but in a few months’ time your debt jumps to £2.5m because of fluctuations in the underlying currency. “Another issue is that many crypto assets are platform-specific. And I just don’t see the practicality of, for example, using one cryptocurrency in Waitrose and another in Tesco. These are not necessarily insurmountable problems but they certainly affect widespread use currently.” But others believe cryptocurrencies will eventually be widely adopted. Pompliano says: “If you and I transact in US dollars, it’s just a belief between you and I that the
So, while the jury’s still out on the future of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, they’ve undeniably morphed into financial assets used for investments and trading – albeit very niche financial assets. The largest, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have market caps of around $70bn and $15bn respectively (combined, that’s just over onetenth the market cap of Apple). And today, their values are not determined by crude bargaining, but in a similar fashion to most financial assets – through large exchanges such as Coinbase, which is backed by some of the world’s leading venture capital funds and global banks such as BBVA. In its December 2018 report The State of Bitcoin, Long-term Value Potential & Analysis, digital asset research firm Delphi Digital set out the ‘long-term drivers’ of Bitcoin value. It described Bitcoin as an attractive store of value – an alternative to gold as a hedge against inflation – and immune to government ‘seizure’. Delphi also stressed the portfolio diversification benefits because of the low correlation between the price of Bitcoin and other asset prices. But these upsides come with risks. Most obvious is extreme price volatility. Richard Field, Guernsey-based Partner at law firm Appleby, says: “The investors we deal with in the Channel Islands tend to have longer term strategies, so they are less interested in short-term volatility, which can scare them off. However, any interest would be expressed as only a very small percentage of any portfolio, typically a fraction of a percentage point.” Digital risks are also significant. A hack at Japanese crypto exchange Mt Gox resulted in around $450m of Bitcoin being ‘lost’ in 2011, which led to its bankruptcy. And in April, Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX was declared bankrupt, having been unable to access $190m worth of crypto funds after its founder died leaving no one else the digital keys to the funds. Field does, however, identify a shift in investor focus similar to the rationale of the pension funds that invested with Morgan Creek. “The underlying blockchain
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ASSET CLASS POTENTIAL
Cryptocurrencies technology has many more use cases than cryptocurrencies themselves, and that’s where institutions are looking to invest, asking: ‘How can we invest in businesses that are developing blockchain solutions that can make life more streamlined and cost-efficient?’.” James Fox, also a Partner at Appleby, says: “From a Channel Island perspective, one of the main applications will be in the area of ‘security tokens’ as opposed to the current initial coin offerings (ICOs).” The Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) splits ICOs into two categories – security and non-security tokens – where non-security tokens are typically pure cryptocurrencies or ‘utility’ tokens that only give the holder a right to access a product or service, not an economic right. Fox adds: “Security tokens are likely to be applicable in sectors such as private equity. They can be used by companies to raise capital, akin to them releasing their own cryptocurrencies linked to the underlying economic performance of the company. “To grossly oversimplify, these coins/ tokens are effectively a technological form of ‘share’, where you have something that’s asset-backed rather than something which doesn’t have much behind it other than ‘code’ – as is the case with a pure cryptocurrency. Security tokens will probably become part of the traditional financial system, rather than something that is an asset class in itself. The potential is for transaction costs and transaction times to be greatly reduced.” Alistair Horn, Jersey-based Partner at law firm Mourant, and a specialist in investment fund structuring, says ICOs and
Security tokens can be used by companies to raise capital, akin to them releasing their own cryptocurrencies linked to economic performance
security tokens have the potential to be a particularly efficient way to raise capital from a large number of investors, even if each investment is small. “If you had to accept a relatively small investment using the traditional fundraising model, the administrative cost (as a percentage of the investment) is likely to be very high. A platform using blockchainpowered tokens makes these types of transactions much more efficient.” And he doesn’t dismiss the opportunity for the Channel Islands in the ‘pure’ cryptocurrency space. Horn says ‘friendly’ ecosystems, such as flexible regulation for funds, crypto businesses and fund managers, are conducive to the creation of
crypto-focused products. By way of example, the JFSC has combined the island’s existing statutory framework governing the raising of capital, the Control of Borrowing (Jersey) Order 1958, with formal ICO Guidance Notes published in 2018 in order to impose certain conditions on a Jersey ICO/security-token issuer. The JFSC has already approved regulatory licences to Jersey-based asset managers focusing on blockchain technologies such as cryptocurrencies, says Horn. “As an international financial centre with substance, these asset managers are run by and employ individuals with real experience and expertise in this new asset class.” Working with such experts is essential. The Jersey Fraud Prevention Forum recently issued an urgent warning for the public to be extra vigilant when investing in cryptocurrencies – one islander has lost £1.2m after investing in fake Bitcoin. Sayer from Carey Olsen also thinks that the Channel Islands will see more and more crypto-related businesses, especially as regulatory clarity emerges. He says: “The regulator in Guernsey generally has an openness and a willingness to encourage innovation. Whether its crypto assets or new fund structures, they are willing to meet and discuss a way forward. However, protection of investors and the reputation of the bailiwick will be at the forefront of its mind. “To date, I think the reason we haven’t seen more of these businesses is that they are waiting to see how the regulatory environment pans out.” n PAUL BRYANT is a freelance journalist
how a Bitcoin transaction works Payor
with Bitcoin wallet on computer
Payor creates a ‘message’ within the wallet, containing: • Amount of coins to be paid • Payee’s public key • Payor’s private key (signature) Broadcasts message to Bitcoin network
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payee
miners
• Miners (network participants) use an algorithm to verify the authenticity of the transaction, and include it in the block of transactions earning Bitcoins • Complete history of transactions with these coins is available to, and kept by, everyone on the network (a public ledger, no intermediary such as a bank) • Network now knows the new owner of these coins
with Bitcoin wallet on computer
Coins are transferred to payee
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Distributed ledger technology
Banking on
blockchain
Cryptocurrencies, with their rollercoaster values, may be stealing the headlines, but it’s the underlying technology they trade on that’s attracting genuine investor interest. DR Desné Masie spoke to tech consultants and practitioners, regulators, lawyers and asset managers to assess attitudes to the most popular of those technologies – blockchain
DAVE BIRCH, ADVISER, DIGITAL JERSEY AND DIRECTOR, CONSULT HYPERION Many projects have been labelled ‘blockchain’ in a bid to ensure fundraising, but have turned out to be low to no value. This partly comes from a misunderstanding of what a blockchain is – this idea that it’s ‘a mystical truth machine’. Usually, the problem being solved is a simple data integration management problem and it’s just an excuse to use blockchain for doing this. That being said, there are a limited number of applications that are genuinely exciting. One of these is tokenisation – taking assets of some kind and turning them into money as a form of institutional binding that can be transmitted between apps on a blockchain, which people incorrectly called smart contracts.
In the private wealth space, there are two aspects for blockchain: for service providers, it will reduce costs and increase security of record-keeping. This is not a particularly insightful thing to say – you don’t have to be particularly blockchain literate to be thinking along these lines – but we may increasingly see trust companies and administrators buying off-the-shelf private permissioned blockchains in order to enhance their back-office functions. Wealth managers need to question whether
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CHRIS GRIFFIN, PARTNER, CAREY OLSEN AND LEGAL ADVISER TO JERSEY’S FIRST INITIAL COIN OFFERING FOR ARC FIDUCIARY
may/june 2019 51
Distributed ledger technology
Regulators certainly want to be seen to be at the forefront of those really revolutionary cases for blockchain that are starting to emerge
they really need the tech, as it can be expensive to set up your own private permissioned blockchain. There are also a lot of times that people make mistakes and if putting things on the immutable blockchain means you can’t go back and fix those mistakes, does it really make sense to invest in them? I am not an evangelist – there are some cheaper and just as good systems.
RYAN RADLOFF, CEO, COINSHARES We all, as an industry, looked at the promise of what that back-end of Bitcoin can provide and aimed for a way in which we can leverage that technology without needing the monetary unit. This fork in ideology started happening in 2013. The struggle we face is that trying for interbank connectivity on distributed ledger technology or on blockchain has proved to be very difficult to implement because some type of entity or group of entities needs to validate the existence of things for an asset to settle and clear. If you don’t have a monetary unit [to mine] to incentivise people to run and operate that network, ultimately you’re trusting that the other person is doing the right thing. But there is no real incentive for them to do the right thing. That doesn’t mean blockchain is over in wealth management. The really exciting development is that private blockchains are beginning to back themselves up against the public open-source blockchains. This means you will start having private blockchains approved by the Financial Conduct Authority, the Jersey Financial Services Commission and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA, which are backing up their databases
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against existing public blockchains. These will be vastly more secure databases than we have ever created. Wealth and asset managers will see how clients’ wealth is settled, cleared and custodied and you are going to start to see a higher percentage of these assets clearing outside Euroclear. There will be no excuse for not having proper key management advice.
MICHAEL BATEMAN, HEAD OF BESPOKE DEVELOPMENT, C5 ALLIANCE Blockchain eliminates the need to trust third parties because it’s enforced not just by law but by cryptographic algorithms. While it’s still early days for the technology, we can already see more high-profile institutions exploring the opportunities this can present. For asset management, automation efficiency via smart contracts, new products such as smart contract-based inheritance structures and immutable audit of activities are hard to ignore. Use cases such as JP Morgan’s JPM Coin, BNP Paribas’ Funds DLT, and Société Générale’s commodity trading platform are already showing the adoption of the technology.
TOM FOTHERGILL, LEAD POLICY ADVISER, FINANCIAL SERVICES AND DIGITAL ECONOMY, GOVERNMENT OF JERSEY Both crypto assets and their underlying blockchain technology are going through a maturing phase. The topic of the year is safe custody. Clearly there is no universal standard yet on how to achieve that. It is a tech, business and regulatory problem and all three are beginning to come together. What’s really important is making sure the space is regulated, especially on AMLD5 [the fifth anti-money laundering directive] and FATF [Financial Action Task
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Distributed ledger technology Force] guidance. That being said, there’s lots of activity in the regulatory space. Regulators certainly want to be seen to be at the forefront of those really revolutionary cases for blockchain that are starting to emerge. And it isn’t just crypto. The trust applications are very promising, such as aviation registers and representing companies’ share ledgers on a blockchain. We are keen to be supportive, but no one is going to come here and set up a blockchain company in the dark. We have a big exercise coming up examining the regulatory position.
ALEXSIS WINTOUR, DIRECTOR, MARBRAL ADVISORY This powerful technology, combined with artificial intelligence (AI), is set to rock the foundations of our financial systems. These tsunamis of technology create a whole new paradigm. We are now in the business of trust. As Don Tapscott [Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute] says, we have an ‘internet of value’. Trust and value are two words heavily used in wealth management. Traditional business models based on competition, and divide and rule, will change and embrace the power of these technologies because the old way won’t work with them. Organisation design will further decentralise, third parties will disappear, and customer acquisition and retention strategies will be different. Business models based on inclusivity and cooperation are the new normal. The zerosum game is ending. Governance and regulatory compliance, including reporting, will bake in these technologies from the start. They will play an increasingly important role in decisionmaking, resolving contractual disputes, and litigations. Smart contracts reduce human error – in all its forms. Risk management will move into real time. Clients will be thinking very differently. Even if a business is not using blockchain and AI, consumer behaviour will rest on expectations of a relationship based on what they’ve been exposed to elsewhere. Moreover, they’ll be looking for any asset that can be tokenised, not just cryptocurrencies. This world doesn’t come without limits. These are still raw, early technologies. Regulators, lawmakers and governments are consulting actively, but it’s about everyone joining up to pose informed questions and explore the right solutions. Only this way will we create collective value and new wealth management business models. At Marbral Advisory, we are raising the conversation to talk about these technologies working with clients on digital strategies, organisation design and successful implementation. There is a thirst for knowledge and we’ve set up the Blockchain Academy to provide for this. n
We are now in the business of trust. we have an ‘internet of value’. Trust and value are two words heavily used in wealth management
DR DESNÉ MASIE is an economist and thought leader in international finance, specialising in policy, regulation and fintech
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may/june 2019 53
Cost of living
Feeling
the
The price of luxury goods is rising faster than consumer goods on the high street. The wealthy may need to rethink their investment strategies if they don’t want to see the value of their assets decline in real terms 54 may/june 2019
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Cost of living
Words: Alexander Garrett
the cost of living well is rising even faster. The latest edition of the Coutts Luxury Price Index (CLPI), published in December, shows that over the previous 12 months, prices of luxury goods in the UK increased by 5.9%. This was more than double the rate of inflation for consumer goods in general, which was just 2.4%. Few are likely to shed tears for the wealthy when it comes to the cost of maintaining their lifestyle, but rising prices for top-end products have implications for those managing wealth, as well as for the economy as a whole.
MEASURING INFLATION For decades, the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has gauged the strength of overall consumer price inflation, using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) as its chief measure. The CPI is based on a ‘basket’ of consumer goods categorised under 12 headings that reflect life’s essential needs – such as food, drinks, clothing, furniture, health, transport and education – as well as some less essential requirements, including alcohol and tobacco, restaurants and hotels. Each year, the basket is adjusted to take account of shifting trends in purchasing behaviour and consumption. Items added in 2019 include popcorn, fruit teas, smart speakers such as Amazon Echo, and electric toothbrushes. The CLPI ‘shadows’ each of the main categories. So, whereas the CPI includes items such as chilled pizza, frozen chicken and fruit pies under its ‘Food & nonalcoholic beverage’ category, the CLPI features Charbonnel & Walker Truffles. And while the CPI has men’s tracksuit bottoms and exercise leggings among its clothing selections, the CLPI offers a Kilgour bespoke suit – or perhaps Sir would like a Jermyn Street shirt?
DIFFERENCES IN WEIGHTING When it comes to the weighting given to each category, however, this can be markedly different from that used in calculating the CPI. The reason is simple:
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wealthy people allocate their spending quite differently to their less fortunate peers. “However wealthy an individual is, the amount they can feasibly spend on food or telephone bills is limited,” Coutts notes. Restaurants, hotels and overseas flights, on the other hand, are the kind of discretionary spending that the wealthy can afford to indulge in to their heart’s content. The weightings used have been drawn from £1.5bn of Coutts customer spending data – anonymised, of course – taken from credit and debit cards, cheques and transfers. In practice, says Coutts, every individual has a ‘personal inflation rate’ based on the proportion of their spending classified as luxury as opposed to everyday.
HIGHEST CLIMBERS So, what does the latest CLPI show? Food is among the fastest rising luxury prices of the past year. Overall, food prices rose by 18%, helped by a 21% increase in the price of native oysters, due to rising demand from China and the loss of natural habitats.
according to Coutts, every individual has a ‘personal inflation rate’ based on the proportion of their spending classified as luxury as opposed to everyday
In the ‘Communications’ category – which includes smart phones and tablets – prices rose by 16%, presumably reflecting the range of premium products selected. A top-end iPhone X cost £1,150 a year ago; now its comparator, the XS Max, would ring up £1,450 on your credit card. And one of the biggest rises of all was in ‘Alcohol’, with prices for investment grade whiskies up 26% – which Coutts attributes to the immaturity of the market – while fine wines appreciated at a steadier rate. Restaurant and hotel prices were up by 5.6% overall, though in the case of top Michelin three-star restaurants, it was considerably more. The Fat Duck at Bray in Berkshire, for example, saw the price of dinner rise faster than one of its soufflés, from £265 to £325. And a night in a Junior Suite at the Gstaad Palace hotel in Switzerland was up a thumping 8.9%. Other categories showed relatively low or even no inflation. Want to get behind the wheel of an Aston Martin DB11? At the end of 2018, it cost you pretty much exactly the same as at the beginning of the year. Housing actually went down by 0.2% in the index, helped no doubt by the decline in prime central London property from its heady heights, and the uncertainty caused by Brexit. Household spending on high-end furniture, kitchens and decorative items has risen more sharply, however, as people invest more in the property they have rather than moving.
GROWING DEMAND There’s no single reason, says Coutts, why luxury prices are going up faster overall than those in the mainstream. The bank cites ‘idiosyncratic moves in individual categories’ as one key driver. Another possible explanation is that demand for luxury goods is growing faster than supply, especially where there are constraints on how much of a particular item can be produced. An ONS report in February 2019 revealed that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The richest fifth of the UK’s population saw
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THE COST OF living is going up – but
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Cost of living
RETHINKING INVESTMENTS The consequence, in any case, is that wealth managers need to consider investment strategies that will keep up with the higher level of inflation among luxury items – particularly where luxuries such as private education are concerned. The price of private schooling has been outpacing inflation for decades. In the 20 years from 1996 to 2016, five years of secondary fees almost tripled from £48,000 to £156,000. Coutts says the rate of fee inflation has fallen, but will continue to exceed general inflation at between 4% and 5% annually over the next decade. Mohammad Syed, Head of Asset Management at Coutts, says: “If you’re putting money aside to help realise a long-term goal, such as paying school fees for your children or grandchildren, or helping them to buy a property, the harsh truth is that the current interest you get from a savings account can’t keep up with inflation. “While keeping your cash in such an account has advantages – easy access to your money and greater security – it may be beneficial to investigate other options, such as a long-term, diversified investment strategy.” Fail to do so and the wealthy may find that the value of their assets is declining in real terms – both against mainstream prices and even more so against luxury prices. And if you allow that process to go on for too long, a serious wealth warning will be in order. Find an investment that keeps up with luxury goods inflation or you may soon be swapping those champagne truffles for a tin of Quality Street; eschewing a skiing holiday in Gstaad for a wet weekend in Grimsby; and passing on Heston Blumenthal’s latest tasting menu at the Fat Duck in Bray in favour of fish and chips at the nearest Wetherspoons. n ALEXANDER GARRETT is a freelance finance writer
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A TALE OF TWO BASKETS The general consumer and luxury consumer basket of goods – which are used to measure inflation – cover the same categories, but how do the items in each basket compare? Sources: ONS, Coutts Category
Consumer Price Index
Coutts Luxury Price Index
Food
Chilled pizza
Charbonnel & Walker Truffles
Alcohol
Canned lager
Rare whisky
Clothes
Replica football team shirt
Kilgour bespoke suit
Housing
Local authority rent
Average prime Scotland house prices
Household
Electric cooker
Four-door Aga
Health
NHS dental examination/ NHS prescription
Preventicum Ultimate Check-Up
Transport
UK rail fare
Aston Martin DB11
Communication
First-class stamp
Samsung Galaxy, latest flagship model
Recreation
Golf green fees
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, circle box seat
Education
University tuition fees
Harrow School, annual fees
Restaurants and hotels
Indian takeaway
Gstaad Palace hotel, Junior Suite, per night
Miscellaneous
Fashion necklace
Patek Philippe Calatrava watch in yellow gold
Bags: Shutterstock
their disposable income rise by 7.5% over the previous year – well above inflation. Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says: “The gulf between the richest and poorest in the UK is growing, with the wealthiest fifth of the UK enjoying a boom in disposable income.” Higher taxes for wealthier families were easily offset by rising incomes, she adds. To some degree, this is a global trend and it means there are more people chasing luxury goods and services. In Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2018 rankings, luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel were the fastest risers, reflecting the strength of demand for their products and the consequent pricing leverage they are able to assert. Luxury brands are renowned for limiting production in order to increase prices and improve their profit margins. With other luxury goods – such as those oysters or those fine whiskies – ramping up production to meet demand simply isn’t an option, and the result is that prices will soar.
may/june 2019 57
Wealth transfer
As baby boomers prepare to pass on unprecedented amounts of wealth to their millennial children, how can they and their advisers ensure that the next generation holds on to this hard-earned wealth?
Words: Gill Wadsworth
OVER THE NEXT three decades in the UK, £1.2trn worth of assets are forecast to be passed to the under-45s by their baby boomer parents, according to 2018 research from wealth management specialist Sanlam. The owners of that wealth, and their advisers, would do well to pay heed to the ancient Chinese proverb: wealth does not sustain beyond three generations. So proven is this wisdom, irrespective of geography or industry, that almost every culture has its own version. In the West, it’s sometimes expressed as ‘from rags to riches and back again in three generations’. Time and again, successive generations have proven incapable of sustaining or growing their inherited fortune, instead squandering it either foolishly or wantonly. However, such decimation of the family fortune need not be inevitable. Timely, careful planning, coupled with effective communication between the generations, can make the difference between an inheritance that lasts the distance and one that doesn’t make it past the grandchildren.
START EARLY Guernsey-based Sam Bird, Managing Director, Trust & Corporate Services at accounting and consultancy group Moore Stephens, says it’s never too early to start succession planning. “As soon as you have successors, you need to think about how you would want your wealth to be passed on,” he says. “Planning is not just for the wealthy; it’s for everyone. If you’ve created any sort of wealth, then you need to have a succession plan.” Succession planning starts with advice. There are so many potential permutations when dividing an estate, particularly for high-networth individuals, that making the wrong moves early on could undermine the whole process. Gavin Ferguson, Partner in the Guernsey Private Client & Trusts team at Ogier, believes one of the most common mistakes is people “seeking proper advice too late”. He adds: “Sometimes people will have already started selling assets or putting assets into trusts based on anecdotal recommendations, and it can
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be too late to undo the effects where there would otherwise have been more favourable options.” Advisers will need to understand the extent of the estate, where all the assets are, and any complexities or unusual arrangements. Individuals must decide how much of their estate they want to pass on today, what needs to be protected for the future and what they want to spend today. Importantly, those passing on their estate need to be entirely truthful about the possibility that there will be additional or surprise claims made on the family fortune. Ferguson warns that a failure to admit to one’s true personal circumstances upfront can lead to unfortunate issues further down the line. He says: “Clients are invariably concerned about their privacy and are naturally hesitant to disclose full details of their personal history – is it possible that illegitimate children may come forward? An open and honest conversation regarding who is intended to benefit, and who is expressly not to benefit, at the outset, can help avoid significant problems in the future.”
Planning is not just for the wealthy; it’s for everyone. If you’ve created any sort of wealth, then you need to have a succession plan
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Wealth transfer
Handle
with
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Wealth transfer
An open and honest conversation with an adviser should extend to the relevant family members, too. Successful succession planning relies on all parties cooperating. If intended recipients are aware of what’s coming their way, they can plan their own lives and ensure they are prepared for what might prove a considerable amount of money. Ajay Wiltshire, General Counsel at accountancy firm Saffery Champness in Guernsey, says: “The biggest pitfall in succession planning is not discussing things within the family. Historically, there’s been a view that dad or mum knows best – but that does not always lead to effective planning.” This is particularly important in cases where a business is expected to pass to the next generation. If the future generations are not interested or equipped to take on the family company, forcing it down the ancestral line can be disastrous. Beneficiaries can still participate in the profits from the firm without being expected to run it, by giving them certain classes of share or by using trust structures or foundations.
DIFFERENT ATTITUDES However, despite the importance of open dialogue on succession planning, the Sanlam research – The generation game – found that just over a third (38%) of under-45s who are set to receive a substantial inheritance have not spoken to the person gifting about their plans for the money. This could be because of differences in attitudes to money between generations. Richard Prosser, Jersey-based Global Head of Private Clients at Estera, says the older generations have a fear of encouraging a lack of work ethic in the next generation, who might see their future as already bought and paid for. “Some clients say that they’d rather their children were not fully aware of their inheritance – they want to encourage them to make their own way in life. We do
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see some from the next generation who have a reduced appetite for work because they anticipate an inheritance on the horizon,” Prosser says. His experience is borne out by the Sanlam survey, which found that a third (34%) of respondents aged 25–45 are relying on their inheritance to help them out financially in later life. An additional third (31%) say the impending inheritance has deterred them from saving so they can ‘live in the now’.
CONTROLLING ACCESS However, this sense of entitlement can be circumvented by putting stipulations on how and when any assets or money can be accessed. The first port of call is a will, which is the foundation upon which additional succession plans can be based. These are straightforward to set up, can be low cost depending on the complexities involved, and are the easiest guaranteed way of ensuring that the estate is divided according to the gifter’s wishes. However, a will should not be treated as a ‘set and forget’ document. As Paul Hodgson, Managing Director at Butterfield Trust (Guernsey), says, it’s important to review a will on a regular basis and to keep it up to date. “We should probably revisit our wills more than we do. That doesn’t mean a formal process; it means just reading it and checking that everything is still appropriate. It may be a case of ensuring that the expensive new watch goes to the right person, for example,” he says. Another popular means of managing intergenerational wealth transfer is by setting up a trust. Dating back centuries, trusts ensure that estates are managed according to the family’s wishes, both before and after death. The same is true of foundations, which provide certainty that estates can be passed on before death, but without the next generation taking immediate, uninhibited control.
Historically, there’s been a view that dad or mum knows best – but that does not always lead to effective planning
While it might be tempting to put in all manner of rules into succession planning, Moore Stephens’ Bird recommends retaining some flexibility in the system. “Circumstances change,” he says. “People disagree or remarry. It makes sense to set up something that achieves what you want but permits a degree of flexibility.” Succession planning is not necessarily straightforward, but it’s certainly easier if it’s done as early as possible, and with openness and honesty. Regulated, professional advisers are critical in ensuring that the process is above board and can meet realistic expectations. As the baby boomers’ trillions trickle down over the decades, if the recipient millennials take the right advice at the right time, they might yet be the first generation to keep their riches for good. n GILL WADSWORTH is a freelance journalist
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Digital transformation: providing firm foundations for data initiatives
John Gamble, Sponsor of the Data Practice at C5 Alliance, believes that a new generation of vendor analytic tools is revolutionising what businesses can do with their data. However, data quality is the key to reaping the benefits of these developments DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS a hot topic for
many organisations right now. In a recent article – Digital transformation: your journey to the cloud1 – James Russell, Head of C5’s Cloud Practice, discussed how cloud or utility computing is enabling this technological shift. He wrote: ‘Digital transformation is the introduction of technology to all areas of an organisation, resulting in operational improvements and how better value and service is delivered to customers. It is made possible by lower cost computer power, storage and bandwidth, paired with increasingly affordable technologies such as cloud, mobile applications, artificial intelligence (AI), big data, internet of things (IoT) and machine learning.’ But how has the cloud changed expectations regarding the use of data in organisations? And what are the steps needed to ensure that any data initiatives set off from a firm foundation?
A CHANGED DATA LANDSCAPE In the last five years, cloud computing has changed the landscape with regards to what people expect to be able to do with data. In 2015, Joseph Sirosh, when he was Corporate VP Data Analytics at Microsoft, wrote: ‘A new era of analytics is being engendered by cloud computing. The cloud gives us the power to collect and integrate data from an enormous variety of sources, to process big data at amazing scale and economics, to dramatically simplify development
More than ever before, we can now use data to understand what’s happening within a department, team or organisation; understand a process better and how to optimise it 62 may/june 2019
and deployment, and offer amazing intelligent APIs and applications as hosted services.’2 Four years on, this is coming to fruition. Online services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Flickr, Facebook, WhatsApp and a host of others have changed the way we live our daily lives. How many of us actually watch TV shows live these days? Typically, we watch on-demand. The same is true regarding how organisations store, collect and use data. The cloud has changed expectation and capability in this area. The diagram (right) shows 10 ways in which this has happened over the past few years, all enabled by cloud computing.
A NEW GENERATION OF TOOLS As well as providing more data than ever before, these trends are directly influencing a new generation of vendor analytic tools that are shaping how companies work with and interact with data. Microsoft recently launched its Common Data Model, which integrates with its Power BI Data Flows product. The Common Data Model provides access to pre-built machine learning and analytic models, further enabling capabilities available to firms. All you have to do is map your data points into the model. More than ever before, we can now use data to understand what’s happening within a department, team or organisation; understand a process better and how to optimise it; use the latest AI or machine learning techniques to solve advanced classification or optimisation problems; or use data to make predictions. Data applied to business problems creates insight and this drives innovation and value. At C5, we helped a start-up called GardenTags, a social network for gardeners, to build a mobile app where users can take a photo of a plant and then the app (via the cloud) classifies it for you and tells you what it is directly from the photo, along with supplying care instructions and contacts for people to help you look after the plant. How cool is that?
QUALITY CONTROL Yet, all of this is predicated by the quality of the data available to you to put into the models. Yes, we have more capability than ever before, but the ‘rubbishin, rubbish-out’ scenario still applies and, to get the
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HOW THE CLOUD HAS CHANGED EXPECTATION AND CAPABILITY IN THE DATA ARENA BIG DATA
The volume, variety and velocity of customer data has massively increased… … if only I could analyse and understand what this is telling us
MACHINE LEARNING
I have lots of data but I can’t put it to good use… … our operations teams would be transformed if we could predict what is going to happen
CLOUD & HYBRID
I can access my pictures and music from anywhere… … and expect the same ability to securely access and share business information
INTERNET OF THINGS
More information is created and made available by connected devices on the premises and in the cloud… … which things are worth measuring and what could the value be?
DATA ANALYTICS
Modern business relies on workers being informed and making decisions based on evidence, not gut feeling… … if only everyone had access to information when they need it
most out of the new capabilities, is perhaps more relevant than ever. Data quality in source applications needs to be managed and controlled with appropriate governance rules applied to ensure it is complete, up to date, available for use and, where required, the appropriate consents are in place and understood so we know what the data can be used for. There are many techniques and software products that can be used for managing data. Master Data Management is itself a discipline, but the best approach is always where the organisational culture recognises the value of data and its importance in enabling innovation and driving the organisation forward. To get to this point requires cultural change, but there are steps that can be taken to shorten the process. First, data needs to be owned. Each core data point in an organisation should have an owner responsible for it. Data is an asset of the organisation and should be treated and looked after in the same way as any other asset. Second, data quality levels need to be monitored and exceptions highlighted. Business intelligence or data analytical tools, as well as being used to interact with and report on business performance, can be used to report on data quality levels. Data profiling tools can produce metrics that can be sliced-and-diced just like any other metric and business rules (for example, every customer must have a date of birth within a given range) and can be applied on data sets to highlight quality issues. From this, KPIs can be produced, issues detected and remedial action taken. Finally, business processes should be updated to
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SOCIAL
REAL TIME
We already monitor Twitter and Facebook feeds…
I’m connected via email all day every day, but why can’t I get at my data until tomorrow?
… but really need to understand what the trends are and whether a campaign is successful
… if only we could react quickly enough to meet customer expectations in a world that works 24/7
MOBILE
I use my phone and tablet to access my data on the move… … and would like to securely access business information on the move
VISUALISATION
It is really hard to understand what the data is telling me… … data action would be transformed if it was more obvious what the data was telling me
SECURITY & PRIVACY
I need to be sure our data and customer details are safe… … older/legacy technologies are most at risk
always address data quality concerns at the source of the data. If you are using tools within the reporting tier to clean, enhance and improve data quality issues, then you introduce the potential for inconsistency in query results, reports and insights generated.
THE RIGHT EXPERTISE The use of cloud services for managing and working with data can undoubtedly play a key role in any digital transformation, but like many things, it is about the journey and embracing the concept of continuous improvement. New tools and capabilities have undoubtedly enabled businesses to use data to innovate in new ways to introduce services, solve problems, improve performance and profitability. The journey can be made as smooth as possible by defining objectives to meet your business challenges and by utilising the right expertise. At C5, our Advise, Build and Run service delivery model can enable the digital transformation journey through our best of breed solutions, while not forgetting data quality. n 1 See bit.ly/2UJBmYM 2 See https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Cortana-Analytics-Suite/CA-SuiteWorkshop-10-11SEP15/The-Future-of-Analytics
FIND OUT MORE
If you would like to discuss your data requirements, please get in touch with Richard Welsh, Chief Commercial Officer, C5 Alliance at Richard.Welsh@c5alliance.com
may/june 2019 63
Wealth management hubs FIGURES DENOTE INTERNATIONAL MARKET VOLUME (IMV) AND PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL IMV Source: Deloitte International Wealth Management Centre Ranking 2018
United states
$1.48trn
17% 7%
Panama and the Caribbean
$0.60trn
The
Channel Islands
v
Words: Dominic Dudley
64 may/june 2019
the world How do Guernsey and Jersey compare with other financial centres around the globe?
COMPETITION BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL financial centres has never been more intense. Governments all over the world are scrambling to develop a presence in the lucrative world of wealth management. To get a sense of how widespread the trend is, just take a look at The Global Financial Centres Index produced by Z/Yen, which features more than 100 entries, from heavyweights such as New York to minnows including Almaty in Kazakhstan. Some hubs serve their domestic market, while others focus on cross-border business. For the likes of Guernsey and Jersey, international clients are most important, and the competition for them even more focused. A good overview of rivals in this corner of the sector comes in the form of the International Wealth Management Centre Ranking by consultancy Deloitte.
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united kingdom
$1.79trn
Wealth management hubs
Luxembourg
$0.26trn
21% 3% Switzerland
$1.84trn
21%
9%
1%
Hong Kong Bahrain
$0.79trn
$0.06trn
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$0.01trn
5% Singapore
Finance. “The Channel Islands are very much at the quality end of the market. We’re not trying to compete for routine work. Where we have a significant advantage is in the sophistication required in areas such as family offices and more complex structures.” Among the strengths that experts on the ground note are the Channel Islands’ political and fiscal backdrop and their wide pool of expertise. “A key strength of the Channel Islands is their stability, in terms of government, legal system and rule of law,” says Julian Davies, Managing Director of training firm CLT International. “The Channel Islands are arguably the world’s leading trust jurisdictions,” adds Geoff Cook, Chairman of investment manager Quilter Cheviot Jersey. “With over £1.3trn managed or administered from the Channel Islands, they are a global player in wealth management terms.” The Channel Islands’ political status is also an advantage over other hubs. As Crown Dependencies, Guernsey and Jersey are masters of their own destiny in a way that British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean are not. And the Channel Islands have been given a clean bill of health by the European Union, while the UAE and six Caribbean and Central American jurisdictions are all on the EU’s list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. All this helps to explain why the Channel Islands have been
$0.47trn
▼
The Deloitte report homes in on international market volume (IMV) – the value of assets managed in a different location to where the asset owner lives. This is a lucrative niche. According to Deloitte, IMV comprises $8.6trn of the world’s financial wealth of $175trn. Guernsey and Jersey aren’t included in the report, but nine other hubs are (see box overleaf). As the report points out, these financial centres face challenges from stiff international competition and cost pressures. Service quality and digital maturity are becoming more important than tax and regulation issues, it says, leading to a ‘flight to quality’. Larger centres are better at addressing these issues. The report notes that smaller hubs have been losing ground, concluding that there’s a growing divide between the best and the rest. ‘Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, the US and the UK, and also Luxembourg to some degree, have been broadly successful, but the UAE, Bahrain and especially Panama and the Caribbean much less so,’ it says. It’s not easy to speculate how well the Channel Islands would perform if they were included in the rankings, given Deloitte’s reliance on qualitative interviews and a proprietary database, but there are reasons to suppose they would do well, given their long history as financial centres. “We’ve been in this game since the 1950s and over that time we’ve developed a substantial private client community and a lot of expertise and substance,” says Dominic Wheatley, Chief Executive of Guernsey
United Arab Emirates
▼
0%
may/june 2019 65
Reaching the minds other publications can’t reach
BL
BUSINESS LIFE
Get involved in 2019 FOR EDITORIAL QUERIES, CONTACT eila.madden@blglobal.co.uk FOR ADVERTISING, EMAIL CARL.METHVEN@BLGLOBAL.CO.UK
Wealth management hubs
1. BAHRAIN
For the Channel Islands to maintain their international position, there needs to be a continuous process of investment in areas such as training and regulatory innovation
8. UK
International Wealth Management Centre Ranking 7. UAE
capturing work from rivals. “In the fiduciary sector, the Channel Islands have grown in popularity exponentially in the past few years, with a shift away from using BVI companies in favour of Guernsey and Jersey companies,” says Matthew Gilligan, Client Relationship Manager for Guernsey-based fiduciary, family office and fund administration services group Louvre Trust. There’s always room for improvement though. Among the biggest challenges facing the Channel Islands industry is the competition for talent, with unemployment in Guernsey and Jersey running at between just 1% and 2%. “There’s a very tight jobs market and it can be hard to find the right employee,” says Davies. Locals are responding to this situation, he adds, with some school-leavers going straight into work in the financial industry and being given a professional education, training with their employers rather than going to university. There have also been signs that the Channel Islands may have been caught by one of the key trends cited in the Deloitte report – the increasing concentration of assets in larger hubs. But the evidence is mixed. Jersey, for example, saw the value of bank deposits shrink from £212bn in 2007 to £114bn in 2016, but there has since been an upturn to £123bn by the end of 2018. On the other hand, the value of funds under administration has risen in most years since 2009, reaching £320bn by December 2018. There has been a similar situation in
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2. HONG KONG
9. US
Financial centres featured in the Deloitte report (in alphabetical order)
3
LUXEMBOURG
4.
PANAMA & THE CARIBBEAN
6.
Guernsey, SWITZERLAND where bank deposits fell in the period from 2009 to 2015, but there has been something of a recovery since then. Funds under management and administration have also been rising in recent years to reach £282bn by the end of 2018. For the Channel Islands to maintain their international position, there needs to be a continuous process of investment in areas such as training and regulatory innovation. Cook points to the development of new international savings plans and green investment funds as examples of areas in which the islands are currently enhancing their offerings. Physical infrastructure is also important. Gilligan says improving air links between the islands and continental Europe “would undoubtedly improve tourism into the islands, but would also offer European clients more direct routes to the islands and in turn develop business relationships further”. While such factors are important at a time of political upheaval in larger jurisdictions such as the UK, perhaps one of the greatest assets associated with the Channel Islands is steadiness. “Jersey and Guernsey are truly safe harbours for international capital looking for a secure and respected home,” says Cook. n DOMINIC DUDLEY is a freelance journalist
5.
SINGAPORE
Between them, the nine hubs above account for 85% of international market volume. The remaining 15% is split between Guernsey and Jersey and other centres, mostly around Europe. According to Deloitte, the Channel Islands are not included in its report because the rankings are based on country-level data that’s not always available for the islands. Jurisdictions are ranked on competitiveness, size and performance. The leader on all three measures is Switzerland; Singapore is second in terms of competitiveness and performance; the UK is second in terms of size. At the other end of the scale, Panama & the Caribbean comes last in terms of competitiveness and the UAE is the smallest. The US is ranked worst for performance, although Bahrain, Panama & the Caribbean and the UAE are not included in this metric. There are myriad underlying elements to the rankings. The competitiveness score is based on 41 factors covering everything from labour market efficiency to the quality of the education system and the fairness of judicial processes. The size ranking is based on IMV assets. The performance criteria are focused on revenue, cost and profit margins.
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MORE PEOPLE H AV E B E E N I N TO S PAC E THAN H AV E PA S S E D THE MASTER OF WINE EXAM
Meet Pierpaolo, he’s one of three Masters of Wine here at Waitrose & Partners. He and his team spend their lives searching the planet to find the best wines for our customers. Think of them as your very own sommeliers. Because every single wine we sell has been hand-picked by them.
Pierpaolo, Partner & Head of Wine Buying
FOR US, IT’S PERSONAL
68 may/june 2019
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The
Knowledge Brain food for the busy business professional
The Knowledge is compiled by Alexander Garrett Household profits
Talking
points
Market timing can make a huge difference when it comes to buying property, according to research by estate agent Savills, reported in the Financial Times. The study revealed that the best year to have bought a house in the UK during the past 15 years was in 2009 – in the wake of the financial crisis. Savills’ analysis, based on Land Registry data for sales in 2018, showed that for those who bought in 2009 and sold last year, the average profit was £93,378. The previous peak was six years earlier in 2003. However, the number of 2018 sellers who bought in 2009 was just one in 40 – reflecting the general reluctance to acquire property when prices had fallen significantly.
Climate change winners
Sustainable boom
The number of sustainable equity and bond funds in the US soared from 235 in 2017 to 351 in 2018, according to a new report by investment research firm Morningstar. The total amount under management was $161bn. The firm’s Sustainable Funds US Landscape Report rebutted the commonly held belief that investors must sacrifice returns when they make investments on ethical lines. In 2018, 63% of sustainable funds performed in the top half of their categories, Morningstar found. The out-performance of sustainable funds was also evident over three and five years, with the majority of funds beating their category benchmark.
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the 1,183 replacement CEOs recorded in 2018, 264 (or 22.3%) were women – up from 18.4% in 2017 and the highest proportion since the survey started tracking gender in 2013.
Parting company
A total of 1,452 US-based CEOs left their posts in 2018 – the biggest number since the financial crisis, according to outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The firm’s CEO Turnover Report showed that the number of CEOs departing last year was close to the record year of 2008, when 1,484 CEOs left their post. The company behind the research blamed the high tally on a number of factors, including economic uncertainty, trade concerns and a changing regulatory environment. Eight CEOs left amid sexual misconduct allegations and another four as a result of allegations of professional misconduct. Of
Unilever, L’Oréal, Danone and Nestlé are the four consumer goods companies best prepared to deal with climate change, according to latest published research by non-profit organisation CDP. Previously known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, the organisation evaluated 16 global consumer goods companies in two sub-sectors – household and personal, and food and beverage. It assessed each of the companies on their business readiness for transition to a low-energy economy, considering four key areas: transition risks; physical risk (especially to water shortages across the value chain); transition opportunities; and climate governance and strategy. Unilever had the highest score overall and the lowest overall was Kraft Heinz. Among the more critical aspects of the report, CDP claimed that the companies’ spending on R&D was low, with almost 60% of the top 10 revenue-generating brands for each company having failed to deliver low-carbon innovations to market in the past five years.
may/june 2019 69
THE KNOWLEDGE
Best of… BOOKS
Choosing leaders
Economic drama
Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (and how to fix it) by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (Harvard Business Review Press, £13.76 [Amazon], hardback) may seem self-evident from the title, but it’s actually more about how we choose leaders, and how we could do it better, than it is about giving the male of the species a bashing. One of Chamorro-Premuzic’s main points is that leaders are often chosen largely on the basis of their perceived charisma and self-confidence, when abilities such as technical competence should be accorded more value. Companies need to rethink how they appoint leaders, he argues – not just ask them whether they could do the job, but get them to prove it.
Now out in paperback, Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis (Vintage, £6.47) is a series of letters by the Greek economist addressed to his daughter Xenia. “Why is there so much inequality?” she asks. His answers draw on childhood memories and well-known tales ranging from Oedipus and Faust to Frankenstein and The Matrix. Varoufakis explains why economics is the most important drama of our times – and how he wants to make it better.
The making of Malone
Startup falls down
Jo Malone: My Story (Simon & Schuster, £20, hardback) recounts how the founder of the eponymous beauty company made the journey from modest beginnings as a teenager struggling with dyslexia and leaving school with no qualifications, to international brand and successful entrepreneur. Malone had an early fascination with smell, which combined with her natural talent for innovation to help her to create world-famous blends such as lime, basil and mandarin. But she’s faced her share of challenges, including being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 37 and told she only had nine months to live, and her decision to go it alone with a new venture after selling the original Jo Malone brand to Estée Lauder in 2006.
Also just out in paperback is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou (Picador, £9.99). This is the account of the downfall of Theranos, a biotech startup valued at $9bn, that claimed it had invented a revolutionary way to test blood. Billed as the next Apple, with its CEO Elizabeth Holmes touted as the next Steve Jobs, it all unravelled when Wall Street Journal correspondent Carreyrou started to investigate. Not only did the technology not work, but Theranos soon became embroiled in allegations of fraud that resulted in Holmes being banned from running a company for 10 years. Jennifer Lawrence has been lined up for the movie.
All prices are publishers’ official prices, except where stated.
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The Knowledge
In numbers: Life expectancy
24.2
PODCASTS
The life expectancy in years for women in the UK who have reached the age of 65. The corresponding figure for men is 21.9 years. Source: CMI Continuous Mortality Investigation, 2018
6
Business Wars Whether it’s Netflix vs HBO or Nike vs Adidas, business is war. At least that’s the message from this new podcast by Wondery. “Sometimes the prize is your wallet, or your attention. Sometimes, it’s just the fun of beating the other guy.” Business Wars promises the unauthorised, real story of what drives these companies and their leaders, inventors, investors and executives to new heights – or to ruin. Your host is veteran US public radio journalist David Brown. https://wondery.com/shows/business-wars/
The Investors Podcast
The number of months by which life expectancy for both males and females in the UK, at age 65, has fallen in the past 12 months. Source: CMI Continuous Mortality Investigation, 2018
The number of extra years that men born in Jersey can expect to live in ‘good’ or ‘very good’ health, compared with men born in England (66.2 vs 63.3). Source: Statistics Jersey
The Investors Podcast claims to be the world’s number one stock investing podcast, with more than 25 million downloads. Its specialism is studying self-made billionaires such as Warren Buffett and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, then sharing their secrets with you. Others featured include Oracle’s Larry Ellison, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, and Annie Duke, world champion poker player. There are also courses and other learning materials on a range of investment topics. www.theinvestorspodcast.com
2.9
29
UK’s international ranking in life expectancy in 2017. The top five countries are Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Singapore and Switzerland. Source: World Population Review
Local to Global with Nick Hewer Hosted by Lord Sugar’s lieutenant on The Apprentice, Nick Hewer, Local to Global is backed by the UK government’s Exporting is GREAT campaign. Each episode features a company that’s made it big selling overseas – London startup what3words, which has changed how we map the world; Pavegen, a technology business with a system that converts footsteps into off-grid electrical energy; and Sure Chill, a refridgeration system that can stay cool for 12 days without power. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/local-to-globalwith-nick-hewer/id1448461894
The year by which the UK government is set to increase the state pension age from 67 to 68. In 2017, the government brought this date forward by seven years to reflect “continuing increases in life expectancy”.
2039
Source: UK Department for Work and Pensions
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may/june 2019 71
THE KNOWLEDGE
How to…
…succession plan What is it? “Succession planning focuses on identifying and growing talent to fill leadership and business-critical positions in the future,” says the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). “There’s no one model for succession planning as its focus is likely to be quite different in small and large organisations, although it can be equally vital in both.” Be proactive The clue’s in the name – planning. Don’t wait until one of your key players walks out of the door before considering who’ll replace them. Kerynne Metherell, a consultant at executive search firm Russell Reynolds, says: “It’s never too early to start succession planning – it should be an ongoing process. This ensures the organisation is prepared for any eventuality and maximises chances for internal candidates.”
Look at the bigger picture To manage succession, take account of the broader picture, not just individual roles, says Sue Filmer, a principal at HR firm Mercer. “It’s about understanding the flow of critical business skills – where they’re moving to, where they are coming from. And you may have a wodge of retirement coming up in the next 10 years, with lots of expertise about to walk out the door, so you have five years to bring on the next generation.” Don’t automatically assume that the secondin-command is the right person to step up
Who’s included? Succession planning should cover the top roles and those in other pressure points of an organisation. “It can be tempting to focus on the most senior roles – CEO, COO, CFO – but you risk overlooking great talent that may be in the lower ranks,” says Graham Oates, chief executive of executive search firm Norrie Johnston. “To be as effective as possible, a succession plan should have a long-term perspective, identifying who could fill gaps now, in a year or even in five years’ time.”
72 may/june 2019
Consider the pool approach “It’s possible for succession planning schemes to take a more generic approach, targeting a ‘pool’ of positions for which similar skills are required,” says the CIPD. “Jobs might be clustered by role, function and/or level, so that the generic skills for particular roles can be developed. The aim is to develop pools of talented people, each adaptable and capable of filling a number of roles. Because succession planning is concerned with developing longer term successors as well as short-term replacements, each pool will be considerably larger than the range of posts it covers.” Cast the net wide Don’t automatically assume the second-in-command is the right person to step up. “Get alignment from all key stakeholders on the leadership and experiential criteria you’re looking for” says Metherell. “Strategic CEO succession planning is about creating options. And if you’ve started the process early enough, the lens can be kept broad and include tracking external candidates, hiring potential ‘stepup’ candidates into apprentice-type roles, non-executive board members, development of internal candidates and even M&A activity to acquire in key talent.”
Broaden your candidates’ experience In the past, people have tended to gain experience by upward moves, with accompanying increases in status and salary, says the CIPD. “Today, that may not be possible because organisations are less hierarchical, with fewer management layers. A sideways move into a different job, perhaps without additional compensation, may be a way of gaining additional experience.”
Use secondments Some organisations are also taking advantage of secondment opportunities as a way of providing wider development opportunities to potential
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The Knowledge
Business leaders on making it to the top
Getting ahead leaders. This can be effective, especially when an organisation is working with increasingly flat structures. “Organisations can benefit from both inward and outward secondments as these can be a useful way of providing development to meet individual and organisational needs and sharing knowledge across the business. However, secondment opportunities must be properly planned and supported throughout their duration in order to ensure their success,” says the CIPD.
Create a development programme Internal candidates
Noel McLaughlin, managing director, Butterfield Bank (Jersey) What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve been given? Well, it’s a bit of a cliché, but the best advice I’ve been given is that there’s no substitute for hard work. A few people get lucky, but for most of us it’s down to hard work to make a success of yourself. My dad is the one who told me that.
What drew you to start your career in accountancy? And did it prove a good foundation for a career? I started off training to be a chartered accountant (after studying for a BA in Accounting and a postgraduate diploma in Advanced Accounting). The main attraction for me was the breadth of opportunities I thought accountancy would open up. I still think it’s a great career choice because in most businesses the numbers play a very big part. It also gives you opportunities to travel: I trained in Northern Ireland, but you can practise as an accountant all over the world.
on the succession plan should be properly developed, says Metherell. “Depending on the time frame, we suggest clear programmes that identify gaps and develop the necessary skills, experience, knowledge and competencies. If the most likely candidate is external, that person can be tracked or put into a development, stepping stone or interim role.”
Was there a seminal experience that helped you to develop the values you have today?
Put it to the test “A holiday is a great time to have a potential successor step in to assume some responsibilities,” advises search firm Robert Half. “The employee will gain experience while you learn how prepared the person is to take on a bigger role.”
What characteristics do you look for when you hire people?
Keep it under review Some successors will move on and others will start to look less promising, so you need to constantly monitor your succession plan. Oh, and don’t forget to consider who’s going to succeed the successors.
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I was in the unique position of helping to close one bank and then helping to open another bank. I was working for ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, and the difficult decision was taken to close it down in Jersey after I’d been working there for 13 years. Shortly after that, I went to a brand new bank that was opening in Jersey. What really came through from that whole experience was the importance of how you deal with people – trying to be fair, open and honest, and treating people with respect. I still have a close bond with the people I worked alongside at ABN Amro, which I think is the result of that.
Qualifications are part of it, but I think attitude is more important. If somebody has a ‘can-do’ attitude, that’s the thing I’m really looking for. You come across people who have top qualifications but don’t have the work ethic to go with it and, to be honest, I would rather have somebody who is positively engaged.
Do you have a secret for successful networking? I think the most important thing is to be a good listener. In lots of networking situations, there’s a tendency for everyone to try to take the lead in talking. But if you show that you’re interested in the other person, it helps you to build a rapport with them, and you get to know what their interests are. So I’d say: remember to listen!
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THE KNOWLEDGE
GURU
WATCH
Jim Rogers
scandal, which led to the demise of Lehman Brothers and the global financial crisis. Then, in 2007, he sold up in the US and moved to Singapore, saying: “If you were smart in 1807, you moved to London; if you were smart in 1907, you moved to New York City; and if you’re smart in 2007, you move to Asia.” He brought up both his daughters to speak Mandarin, on the basis that China would be ou couldn’t describe Jim Rogers as an investment guru in driving the global economy going forward. the sense of somebody who has a unique approach or a As to his approach to investment, Rogers has said of himself: highly original methodology developed and articulated “I buy cheap and I sell high”. He’s also said if you buy something over the years. Rather, he’s an investment guru to whom, when he cheaply, even if you’re wrong, you won’t lose much money. speaks, people tend to listen. Rogers’ instinct is strongly contrarian, on the grounds that if Rogers, who was educated at Yale and Oxford universities, you do the same as everyone else, you’re unlikely to make forged his reputation as co-founder – with George Soros much money. – of the Quantum Fund in 1973. A privately owned In 2018, for example, he argued strongly in favour of Rogers ‘retired’ and internationally oriented hedge fund, its portfolio investing in the unfashionable agriculture sector on the at 38 to motorcycle grounds that farmers are ageing and their products gained 4,200% in value by the end of the decade, making both men extremely wealthy. are going to be in short supply at a time when round the world, Rogers ‘retired’ at the age of 38 to do a demand from China and elsewhere is soaring. but has never motorcycle tour of the world, but has never stopped Just lately, he’s predicted that North Korea, with its stopped investing investing, teaching and writing about investment. “vast natural resources” and cheap labour, will be the He’s made some big calls along the way. In 1999 he biggest investment opportunity over the next 20 years. predicted the start of a global commodities rally, a year And, in a move that has provoked the ire of critics, he after he founded the Rogers International Commodities Index. says the world is facing the “worst” economic crisis in his lifetime, And in 2006 he shorted the US mortgage companies Freddy thanks to suffocating levels of debt. Mac and Fannie Mae, as well as US investment banks and Nobody could accuse the man from Baltimore, with an housebuilders, more than a year before the subprime mortgage estimated net worth of $300m, of mincing his words.
Y
Flying shame
The Swedes call it flygskam; the Dutch have a similar word: vliegschaamte; the Germans say flugscham. They’re all talking about the same thing: feeling guilty about flying because of the carbon emissions that result from air travel and the contribution your trip makes towards climate change. In English, it’s been variously translated as ‘flying shame’ or ‘flight shame’. Two Swedish women, Maja Rosen and Lotta Hammar, used a social media campaign, Flygfritt 2019, to persuade nearly 15,000 people to give up flying altogether in 2019. And the Swedish athlete Bjorn Ferry accepted a commentator role with television channel SVT on the strict condition that he would not have to fly anywhere. So far, the movement appears to be more than an empty gesture. Passenger numbers on Swedish rail services are up by 100% on some routes and there has been a modest decline in both domestic and charter flights in Sweden, according to the State Transport Authority. As yet, there is no parallel movement in the Englishspeaking world – although the hashtag #flyingless has achieved a certain amount of traction.
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Clickfarm Where fake social media likes come from. Located in developing countries, workers are paid to click links using banks of mobile phones, making them more difficult to filter out than bots. Intrapreneur An entrepreneur who works inside a company, injecting innovation and energy – and benefiting from having access to corporate resources and funding.
BUZZWORDS…
JARGON BUSTER:
ALSO NEW IN THE WORLD OF
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The Knowledge
Top tech PropTech’s top 10 HOT WHAT’S
PROPERTY TECHNOLOGY – OR PROPTECH – IS AN EXCITING AREA OF DIGITAL INNOVATION FOCUSED ON MAKING ALL ASPECTS OF PROPERTY – BUYING, SELLING, RENTING, MOVING, MANAGING – MORE EFFICIENT AND COST-EFFECTIVE. HERE ARE 10 TOP SITES AND APPS 1. NESTED
6. HOMIE
For people who want to move chain-free, this idea is simple. The company undertakes to sell your current home within 90 days and will advance you its valuation amount in the meantime so you can get on with purchasing your next property. Even if delays occur within the selling process, your move can go ahead. nested.com
Aimed at busy professionals with scant time to look for somewhere to live, Homie provides a personalised home finder that automatically generates listings based on your expressed preferences. For £49 it can also arrange viewings, organise transport between viewings and help with moving in services. homie.rent
2. CANOPY
7. HABITO
Aimed at renters who want to get on the housing ladder, this enables you to build up a track record – a ‘rent passport’ – in the form of a strong credit rating. Another benefit is that tenants make an insurance payment rather than an upfront deposit to the landlord. Backers include insurers Direct Line Group and Hiscox, and credit reference agency Experian. canopy.rent
This free online mortgage broker uses technology to analyse every mortgage on the market – from more than 90 lenders – to find the best one for you in seconds. It then walks you through the mortgage process, keeping you updated with the progress of your application from start to finish, with advisers available via phone or livechat to answer questions. Remortgages are also covered. habito.com
3. MOVEBUBBLE
8. EYESPY360
This is an app for renters to search and compare areas and properties, as well as book viewings and receive property recommendations. It puts everything you need in the renting process into a single space, allowing you to talk directly to agents on the app, get real-time updates on listings and read reviews of properties. movebubble.com
Designed for people who want to create a virtual tour of their property, this site is especially useful if you’re a DIY seller or landlord. You can use any 360 camera – including panorama shots from your phone – to capture your images, and the EyeSpy360 platform helps you to turn that into a professional tour. eyespy360.com
4. RENTIFY
9. GOODLORD
This letting platform is designed for landlords, bypassing rental agencies and allowing you to get your property on the market swiftly. Rentify handles all the paperwork and even valuations. Landlords can also perform credit checks through the platform, issue tenancy agreements, and manage rental payments. rentify.com
This lettings platform says its mission is “to provide the best renting experience in the world”. The company’s main target market is lettings agencies, for whom it claims to make the letting process much smoother. It uses a cloud-based system to generate contracts and enable processes such as e-signing, referencing and insurance to be carried out digitally. goodlord.co
5. ACASA The acasa app helps users, be they renters or homeowners, to pay their bills on one online platform and track all their household costs. (It’s claimed that we spend an average of eight days a year sorting out household bills.) It’s particularly designed for those in shared households – students, flat sharers or even couples – because it can be set up to split bills and monitor who has paid. helloacasa.com
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10. APPEAR HERE In the era of the pop-up shop, this marketing retail specialist enables owners of all kinds of different spaces – market stalls, rooftops, gardens and even catwalks – to advertise their availability online to a range of brands and retailers. And for those in need of a space for as little as a day or a week, they can find and book it online. appearhere.co.uk
MEDITATION MUSE Productivity aid Muse is a headband that translates your mental activity into weather sounds that guide you to a place of calm. If your mind is too busy, you get stormy weather calming to gentle birdsong. The latest version is also fitted with a gyroscope to monitor your bodily stillness and a heart rate monitor to keep tabs on your pulse. £199, choosemuse.com
SECURE YOURSELF CloseCircle is a personal security app and online service for people who travel the world without a corporate security team. It can warn you if you’re in the vicinity of a known security threat, and has a panic button that can alert a 24/7 operations centre. In extreme circumstances, they may be able to evacuate you using trained exmilitary personnel. Individual membership from £195, closecircle.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
Great learning boosts performance It’s a simple fact of business that people who know how to use their IT systems properly are more productive and happier at work. At ALX Training, it is our mission to ensure that every person we work with can use their essential applications properly, saving time, smoothing processes and creating a more productive workplace.
Appleby is one of the world’s largest providers of offshore legal advice and 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 Hong Kong and Shanghai. We are also the only firm to have offices in all three British Crown Dependencies. Our services include:
Ashburton Investments is an investment manager offering discretionary portfolio, multi-asset and specialist fund solutions to international private and corporate clients including family offices, trustees and wealth managers. While the rest of the industry may have had to come to terms with how the global financial crisis changed the world for their clients, we have simply carried on doing what we have always done – delivering risk adjusted returns through all market conditions.
Our trainers are renowned for their product knowledge, and their friendly and energetic attitudes to training help them get the best from every person they teach.
l Corporate l Dispute Resolution l Private Client & Trusts l Property
Learning starts at induction We are well-known for our range of Microsoft Office courses which includes Office 365, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Project, SharePoint and Visio but our clients know we can do much more.
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.
Not only do we train on well-known accounting packages such a Xero and QuickBooks but we create courses on bespoke in-house systems. We design unique courses specifically for your organisation, so that your staff learn precisely the information they need to work efficiently and effectively.
For more information visit our website www.applebyglobal.com
Multi Asset is not the latest investment trend to us. It has been the cornerstone of our business since inception, supported by our experienced and longstanding equity specialists. For more than 35 years, we have invested in what makes sense. Our product set and approach to investments has evolved over time to suit ever changing market conditions but the underlying constant is that we understand our clients need to effectively manage risk and we put them at the centre of our thinking.
Wendy Benjamin Managing Partner, Jersey Group Partner, Guernsey wbenjamin@applebyglobal.com
Globally, Ashburton Investments has over £9.1bn under management as at April 2018 with offices in the Channel Islands, United Kingdom and South Africa.
We know there’s no better place for your new colleagues to start learning than during their induction programme, so we develop bespoke induction courses that give your new starters all the information they need to hit the ground running. We can even deliver content online, so training can be ongoing and continuous.
Contact Laythamm Malorey E: laythamm.malorey@ashburton.com T: +44 (0)1534 512010 www.ashburtoninvestments.com
Contact us to discover great learning opportunities: T: 01534 873785 E : alex@alxtraining.com www.alxtraining.com
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Independent and Professional We offer a full range of management and fiduciary services to our domestic and international private clients and corporate structure: Family office - bespoke assurance l Wealth management - your strategy l Trustee - impartiality with vision l Corporate services - attention to detail l Good governance - a helpful eye l Strategic guidance - controlled ideas l
We aim to assist in the provision of personal service to meet your requirements. Ask us. Being vigilant and proactive in the face of a fast changing legal, economic and fiscal landscape. We can provide the focus to your solution. Try us. Our team has many years of experience dealing with a wide range of clients in different countries. We look to provide good corporate governance to achieve your aim. Contact us: Wendy Warder – Senior Trust Manager wwarder@baccata.co.je Lisette Le Creurer – Senior Trust Manager llecreurer@baccata.co.je Justin Clapham – Client Director jclapham@baccata.co.je Áine O’Reilly – Client Director aoreilly@baccata.co.je Tim Cartwright – Consultant tcartwright@baccata.co.je www.baccata.co.je Tel: 00 44 1534 870670 Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission
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Be Secure is a consultancy business providing services in the following areas; GDPR data protection ISO 27001 Information Security l Cyber Security l EU Representative services l l
(via Irish office)
Be Secure, in association with partners who are experienced professionals in data protection, technology, cyber security and legal services are working to deliver high standard assurance and advisory services to Channel Islands organisations. We work as a business partner to your organisation in support of the board of directors, trustees, partners, senior management and staff in managing the governance obligations of data protection in this new GDPR data protection world! Be Secure is lead by a highly experienced finance professional, who has worked in senior roles in private equity owned businesses, in both commercial and financial services business sectors. As a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (“iapp”) and an accredited Certified Information Privacy Professional Europe (CIPP/E), Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM), Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT), GDPR Practitioner, ISO 27001 Lead Implementer and Lead Auditor, Be Secure’s founder and director can help you, and your colleagues, manage this area in a professional and practical way for your organisation and clients. For further information please contact:
Carey Olsen is a leading offshore law firm. We advise on Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey law across a global network of nine international offices. We are a full service law firm working across banking and finance, corporate and M&A, investment funds and private equity, trusts and private wealth, dispute resolution, insolvency and property law. Our clients include global financial institutions, investment funds, private equity houses, multinational corporations, public organisations, sovereign wealth funds, high net worth individuals, family offices, directors, trustees and private clients. We work alongside all of the major onshore law firms, accountancy firms and insolvency practitioners on corporate transactions and matters involving our jurisdictions. Our advice is delivered by an approachable and experienced team of globally-minded lawyers who work in partnership with our clients to help them achieve their objectives. We have the expertise and resources to handle the most complex international transactions combined with a personal approach to business. Contact: guernsey@careyolsen.com T +44 (0)1481 727272 jerseyco@careyolsen.com T +44 (0)1534 888900 www.careyolsen.com
Brian Siney, Founder and Director, CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT, ISO 27K Lead Implementer, Lead Auditor, FCA brian@besecure-consultants.com +44 7797 738743 or www.besecure-consultants.com
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Directory
Deloitte LLP provides audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory services, bringing worldclass capabilities and high-quality services to clients. The company has the broadest and deepest range of skills of any business advisory organisation - it’s what we do that makes the difference.
Estera is a fully independent, market-leading provider of corporate, fund and trust services. Our highly regarded practitioners have extensive experience and expertise of delivering tailored, commercially-focused fiduciary solutions that help our clients meet their business objectives.
Deloitte employs 160 professionals in Jersey and Guernsey and is part of Deloitte North West Europe (NWE).
We work with listed and privately owned companies of all sizes as well as leading financial institutions, advisory firms and individuals and their families.
The impact we make unites over 15,000 of us across the United Kingdom and inspires us to lead the professional services industry. We work to provide trust and confidence in capital markets, support inclusive growth and competitiveness, and build skills and develop future leaders.
In Guernsey, we are one of the leading players in the funds industry having acted on both of the LSE IPOs for new investment funds last year and we provide a range of corporate and fiduciary services to high-networth individuals, private companies, funds and global corporations.
As part of Deloitte NWE, we advise and deliver for the public sector as well as global and local businesses across every industry. The NWE firm brings together nine countries and over 30,000 talented people, giving us a breadth and depth of expertise to solve organisations’ most complex challenges and make an impact that matters for our clients, our people and society.
Our Jersey team offer a broad range of fund, fiduciary and administration services and manage over 1,000 structures for private and corporate clients as well as having over £10bn in assets under administration.
For further information please do not hesitate to contact: John Clacy Partner, Guernsey D: +44 1481 703 210 jclacy@deloitte.co.uk Helen Gale Partner, Jersey D: +44 1534 82 4358 hgale@deloitte.co.uk www.deloitte.co.uk
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Our global footprint in 11 jurisdictions means we can deliver service continuity across multiple time-zones, both onshore and offshore. For further information please visit our website www.estera.com or contact Corporate: Patrick Jones – Group Director patrick.jones@estera.com Funds: Ethan Levner – Group Head of Corporate Development ethan.levner@estera.com Trusts: Richard Prosser – Group Director richard.prosser@estera.com
About EY EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transactions and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities. Our strong network has enabled us to build close working relationships with our colleagues in EMEIA and across the world. This allows us to respond quickly to our CI clients’ needs, drawing upon our industry experience across all our services lines. To discuss how we can support your business, please contact one of our partners below: Andrew Dann, Managing Partner, Assurance E: adann@uk.ey.com T: 01534 288 655 Richard Le Tissier, Partner, Assurance E: rletissier@uk.ey.com T: 01481 717 468 Chris Matthews, Partner, Assurance E: cmatthews@uk.ey.com T: 01534 288 610 David Moore, Partner, Assurance and Advisory E: dmoore@uk.ey.com T: 01534 288 697 Wendy Martin, Partner, Head of Tax CI E: wmartin1@uk.ey.com T: 01534 288 298 David White, Head of Tax, Guernsey E: dwhite1@uk.ey.com T: 01481 717 445
Estera Trust (Jersey) Limited is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission Address: Estera, 13-14 Esplanade, St Helier, Jersey, JE1 1EE Estera Trust (Guernsey) Limited is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission Address: Estera, PO Box 25, Regency Court, Glategny Esplanade, St Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 3AP
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www.blglobal.co.uk To advertise in the directory in print or online contact Carl Methven on + 44 (0)1534 615886 or carl.methven@blglobal.co.uk
Fiduchi is an independent multi-family office, trust, corporate and yacht services provider. We are owner managed free from the pressures of Private Equity, Corporate and Institutional ownership. We focus on the following three service areas: Private Wealth: We provide bespoke solutions to family offices and a broad range of HNWIs, entrepreneurs, business leaders and large families from all over the world. Corporate Services: including Real Estate, Capital Markets and Employee Services.
We’re a global leader in delivering fund, corporate, capital market and private wealth services to multinationals, fund managers, financial institutions and business entrepreneurs. With over 2,500 employees working from 41 offices in 29 countries across Europe, the Americas, AsiaPacific and the Middle East, we’re focused on delivering high-quality tailored services to our clients with a view to building longterm relationships. In the Channel Islands we offer a comprehensive range of services to our clients and business partners: orporate Services C Fund Services l Real Estate Services l Capital Markets l Private Wealth l Performance & Reward Management Services l
Yacht Services: (formally Jersey Yacht Management Limited) are leading specialists in the offshore yacht, megayacht and superyacht services industry. We have a thorough knowledge of all aspects of yacht ownership structures, yacht registration, tax, administration and crew employment and payroll. For further details contact: David Hopkins - Managing Director +44 (0) 1534 755 111 david.hopkins@fiduchi.com Robert Ayliffe - Executive Director +44 (0) 1534 755 124 robert.ayliffe@fiduchi.com Darren Hocquard - Executive Director +44 (0) 1534 755 101 darren.hocquard@fiduchi.com www.fiduchi.com Fiduchi Limited is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.
l
Julius Baer’s origins date back to 1890. From that time the renowned Swiss private banking group has been dedicated to serving and advising sophisticated private clients and family offices from around the world – going on 125 years now. Julius Baer employs more than 100 staff in Guernsey and offers a range of financial services, including portfolio management and investment advisory. Credit services include the provision of Lombard lending and UK buy to let mortgages. There is also a dedicated team that supports the needs of External Asset Managers and the Branch works closely with the wider Julius Baer Group through the provision of administration and support services that are delivered from its booking centre. Steve Burt Branch Manager Stephen.burt@juliusbaer.com
We pride ourselves on providing professional, personal and cross-border services to our clients across the globe.
Jean-Luc Le Tocq Head of Private Banking jeanluc.letocq@juliusbaer.com
For further information, please contact
Craig Allen Head of Investment Management Craig.allen@juliusbaer.com
Simon Mackenzie Managing Director, Jersey +44 (0) 1534 504000 simon.mackenzie@intertrustgroup.com Marie McNeela Managing Director, Guernsey +44 (0)1 481 211 275 marie.mcneela@intertrustgroup.com Intertrust Jersey is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission and Intertrust Guernsey is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
Shaun Kelling Head of External Asset Management Shaun.kelling@juliusbaer.com https://www.juliusbaer.com/gg/en/home/ Bank Julius Baer & Co Ltd, Guernsey Branch is licensed in Guernsey to provide banking and investment services and is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
www.intertrustgroup.com
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Directory
KPMG in the Channel Islands is a leading provider of professional services, including audit, tax and advisory. With offices in Jersey and Guernsey, we employ over 260 members of staff across the two islands. We work closely with clients, helping them to identify and grasp opportunities, and mitigate risk. KPMG’s global network enables us to draw on international resources to meet clients’ needs. KPMG member firms are located across 154 countries and employ more than 200,000 people around the world. With passion and purpose, we work shoulderto-shoulder with clients, integrating innovative approaches and deep expertise to deliver real results. Jersey Jason Laity Chairman jlaity@kpmg.com Andrew Quinn C.I Head of Audit andrewquinn@kpmg.com John Riva C.I. Head of Tax jriva@kpmg.com Robert Kirkby Advisory Partner rkirkby@kpmg.com Guernsey Neale Jehan Managing Director njehan@kpmg.com Tony Mancini Tax Partner amancini@kpmg.com Ashley Paxton C.I. Head of Advisory ashleypaxton@kpmg.com
Specialty: Bespoke IT Development & Business Consultancy
Building trust in society and solving important problems
Puritas is an award-winning provider of intuitive software and business solutions for the financial services industry.
We focus on three things at PwC in the Channel Islands: assurance, tax and advisory services. But how we use our knowledge and experience depends on what you want to achieve. So whichever one of our 390 staff in the Channel Islands you work with (or 225,000 people across the PwC global network of member firms), they’ll start by asking the following questions:
Specifically designed to meet the increasingly complex accounting, compliance, and reporting needs of our clients, all software features robust audit and control capabilities which can be easily updated to reflect changes in the regulatory environment. Our products include: l PureFunds - a unitized product platform specifically designed to support many different types of asset class and fund structures and help fund administrators and portfolio managers better manage investor activity l P ureClient - an advanced customer due diligence/client management system which will maintain and update client records for any entity or relationship and provides the necessary transparency and look-through reporting that is needed to manage sophisticated structures l P ureManager - a bespoke software package for fund and investment managers which provides for effective control, analysis, reconciliation and reporting of daily trading activity. As well as software development, our services include: l Systems integration and implementation l Programme and project management l Project and business consultancy
Are you looking to build trust? Give your shareholders more value? Or do you want to do something completely different with your strategy? When we work with you we really listen, to understand you better. We’ll get to know you, your business and your goals. Then we’ll share what we’ve learned to help you get there. We want to deliver the value that you, our clients, our people and our communities are looking for. Talk to us about your issues and aspirations. For further information, please contact: John Roche, Partner, Guernsey Phone: +44 1481 752040 Email: john.roche@pwc.com Karl Hairon, Partner, Jersey Phone: +44 1534 838276 Email: karl.hairon@pwc.com Follow us: @PwC_CI www.pwc.com/jg
To find out more how Puritas can help your business. Contact: Mike Feighan - Director Phone: +44 (0) 1534 874100 Email: mike.feighan@puritas.co.uk
www.kpmg.com/channelislands
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BL Directory Vantage is an innovative group of companies providing a wide, yet associated range of specialist services to our professional, corporate and private clients. Since our formation in 2006 we have grown to offer an extensive range of business solutions to meet the expanding and everchanging needs of our clients – to solve their problems and to improve efficiencies. We can insure a firm’s buildings, contents and liabilities, arrange the company pension scheme, advise on life assurance, and provide medical insurance for all staff members. We can provide office space, source new staff and advise on employment matters. We can also consult on salary levels and employee benefits. We provide both regulated and nonregulated services, specifically: l Insurance Broking l Captive Insurance Management l Pensions and Retirement Planning l Investments and Life Assurance l Remuneration Surveys, Recruitment and HR Advisory l Serviced Offices and Property Management For further details please contact: Richard Packman, Chief Executive, Vantage Group +44(0) 1534 706503 richard.packman@vantage.je www.vantage-group.co Vantage Limited, Vantage Insurance Brokers Limited and Vantage Pension Trustees Limited are regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.
ONLINE DIRECTORY THE ONLINE DIRECTORY THAT WILL GET YOUR FIRM NOTICED. With a profile summary on every press release, and a historical press release archive linked to your directory entry, BLGlobal.co.uk is the place to be
Only £150m per annu
TO GET YOUR FIRM LISTED IN THE DIRECTORY CONTACT CARL METHVEN +44 (0) 1534 615886 / +44 (0) 7797 796377 OR CARL.METHVEN BLGLOBAL.CO.UK
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20 questions with TAMARA VANMEGGELEN
GLACIAL CALM
➤
Tea or coffee? Coffee, one per day, preferably around lunchtime. Favourite song ever? Everlong by the Foo Fighters. I love a song with a crescendo! Most amazing place you’ve ever visited? Lake Louise, Banff, Canada. The impossible turquoise of the glacier lake water set against the rugged Rockies is utterly spectacular. Scariest thing that’s ever happened to you? I crashed a snow mobile into a tree in British Columbia. The snowmobile rode up the tree, I went flying one way and thankfully the snowmobile went the other way and didn’t land on me! It happened during a heavy snowfall with a three-metre base underneath, so I started sinking. I only mildly sprained my hand but I’ve not been on a snowmobile since. Your best quality? Friendliness. The worst thing about you? I have a tendency to interrupt others due to my enthusiasm, but I know it’s very rude. Favourite food? Vegetable kofta at Café Spice. It’s not on the menu, but the owner, Sam, kindly agrees to make them for me. Cats or dogs? Cats. Can you play an instrument? Sadly, no. I am a dedicated listener of instruments only. First job you had? Offering food samples of Jamaican patties in grocery stores on the weekend to encourage shoppers to buy. I had to carry the oven on public transit to get to a different store each weekend.
PATTIE PAIN
ROLL THE DICE
Worst job you’ve done? Working at a car rental agency as a student. It was before the days of automated contracts, so the amount of paperwork and time involved led to a lot of impatient customers.
Top of your bucket list? To see Giant Redwood trees in California. I’ve been to California several times and somehow never got there. Last time you cried? Watching the sappy ending of Crazy Rich Asians on a flight home from the Christmas holidays. I’m blaming jet lag on this one… Sweet or savoury? Savoury. Ever met anyone famous? Doug Gilmour, in a pub he owns in Toronto. Doug isn’t known over here, but he’s an absolute legend to any Toronto Maple Leafs hockey fans. Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with? Robert Plant and Dave Grohl. And Dave’s guitar. What one item would you save if your house was on fire (family excepted)? A granite wall carving called Waves by Jersey artist Mark Guest. He came to our house to hang it himself and said it was the first wave carving he’d done after moving away from his famous circle designs. It’s very special. Buzzword you hate the most? Amplify. This word should be reserved only for the sound of electric guitars. What’s your usual breakfast? Homemade muesli with soy milk. I eat this every single day and even take it with me when I travel. Something about you that people might be surprised by? My career is in risk management, but I love to play craps. It’s an incredibly exciting game of chance, full of superstitions, and it attracts lots of characters to the table. Tamara Vanmeggelen is Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Mourant and is based in Jersey.
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Global specialist in trust, corporate and fund services, with 16 offices across 13 jurisdictions. Delivering bespoke solutions to a diverse client base of high-net-worth individuals, their families, international corporations, institutional investors and business owners requiring active wealth solutions.
www.zedra.com
Cayman Islands / Guernsey / Hong Kong / Isle of Man / Jersey Luxembourg / Malta / Netherlands / New Zealand / North America Singapore / Switzerland / United Kingdom Regulatory information is detailed on zedra.com
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