Jersey starts work on new financial watchdog

SENIOR Jersey advocate Julian Clyde-Smith has been selected to help set up an independent financial services watchdog on the island.

Clyde-Smith, a partner at Jersey firm Ogier & Le Cornu, joins a panel of six experts who have the task of setting up the Financial Services Commission. They have until next spring to draw up the commission's remit and determine how it will be funded.

It will replace the existing Financial Services Department, a government body. It is hoped the commission will boost confidence in the island's burgeoning finance industry and help promote it as a stable offshore centre.

The island is sensitive about recent criticism of its decision to introduce a limited liability partnership (LLP) law. The LLP proposal has been passed by the Jersey parliament and approved by the Privy Council but has yet to be enacted.