Feedback on consultations on prescribed non-profit organisation requirements
We have published our feedback on consultations on Prescribed Non-Profit Organisation requirements.
As part of Jersey's efforts to combat financial crime, we have worked with the Government of Jersey and the Jersey Charity Commissioner (JCC) on protecting Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) from the risk of being used to assist terrorist financing.
The changes to the Non-Profit Organizations (Jersey) Law 2008 (the Law) are to protect vulnerable NPOs from potential terrorist financing abuse. Jersey is committed to safeguarding and maintaining good practices of charitable giving and to work with the NPO sector to ensure transparency, accountability, and safe practices to prevent exploitation of our NPOs by terrorists. At this same time, ensuring not to unduly disrupt or discourage legitimate charitable activities. We do not wish to interfere, nor add unnecessary burden to NPO sector. It is a vital contributor to society and its members, not just in Jersey but also in the world economy, providing important services and functions which enhance the quality of life for many, often under challenging and desperate circumstances.
In line with international standards, we have identified a sub-set of the NPO sector in Jersey which is more vulnerable to terrorist financing abuse. Terrorists might seek to take advantage of the good work carried out in the NPO Sector for their own purposes. Therefore, it is important for Jersey to have a legal and regulatory framework in place to mitigate this risk.
A Ministerial Order and new section of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CFT) Handbook specific to NPOs shall become effective on 1 January 2023.
This means that NPOs which meet the definition of an NPO under Article 1 of the Law, and who have not already done so, will need to register with us. From this population an at-risk sub-set will be identified who will have additional requirements placed upon them, and become subject to supervision by us for CFT purposes. This sub-set will be known as “Prescribed NPOs”.
Proposals for these new legal and regulatory requirements have been consulted upon:
- In August 2022, we issued a consultation on proposed requirements on CFT for Prescribed NPOs. It proposed Codes of Practice and Guidance notes for Prescribed NPOs. This consultation closed on 20 September 2022.
- In November 2022, the Government of Jersey published a further consultation, seeking feedback on the draft Ministerial Order, which would place CFT requirements upon Prescribed NPOs. This consultation closed on 18 November 2022
- Over the course of 2021 and 2022, we have undertaken a significant amount of outreach and engagement activity in respect of NPOs. This includes:
- meetings to discuss the 2021 NPO national risk assessment
- working with the JCC
- several drop-in/’lunch and learn’ sessions made available to the sector, trust company businesses and members of the public.
We are very grateful to everyone who took the time to participate in this process.
A summary of the feedback to the consultations and update to the AML/CFT Handbook are now published
Working together with Government and the JCC, we have now prepared:
- a summary of the feedback received to the two consultations, along with our responses.
- a revised version of the NPO section of our AML/CFT Handbook. This includes amendments following feedback from the NPO sector, as well as our internal discussions.
Helpful links
- The final version of the Ministerial Order, to be known as the Non-Profit Organisations (Prescribed NPOs – Additional Obligations) (Jersey) Order 2022, has also been published and can be accessed on Jersey Law.
- Our AML/CFT Handbook page has been updated to include the new NPO section
- Our NPO pages will be updated to include further information on the Ministerial Order and our supervisory regime for Prescribed NPOs.
For any questions on these changes, please contact our Policy Team via CPHandbook@jerseyfsc.org or our supervision team (Sam Davison and Kate Rogers) via NPOEnquiries@jerseyfsc.org.