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Industry update

Information for regulated businesses - Coronavirus (Covid-19)

We are monitoring developments closely regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and readying our own business continuity plans to prepare for all likely scenarios. The measures we are taking are precautionary to make sure we can remain operational.

As a regulated business you should be undertaking your own contingency planning and putting procedures in place, relevant to your operations and in response to the advice issued by the Government of Jersey.

Advice for businesses on coronavirus (COVID-19) from Government of Jersey

You should also be assessing your operational risks, making sure you can continue to operate effectively and meet your regulatory obligations. We appreciate staff may be required to work from home in order to meet these requirements.    

Our supervisors will be discussing business continuity planning with you but if you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, you should contact your supervisor.

Business continuity planning

Financial services businesses should be readying themselves for all scenarios, including the possibility of the majority of your staff working remotely from home.

If you haven’t done so already, you should consider setting up appropriate remote working arrangements and equipment (laptops, mobile phones, etc.).

In addition, please consider:

  • deciding and dynamically amending your business travel and holiday policies
  • identifying staff who are at the greatest risk of infection (whether due to personal circumstances or medical conditions) and putting appropriate contingency arrangements in place
  • determining and actively identifying essential in-office roles and allocating rotas accordingly to achieve continuity of service for your clients
  • setting prudent but practical policies for online access to electronic work files and particularly confidential client information
  • securing appropriate internet bandwidth and other third party services to enable home working
  • reviewing compliance and control procedures to ensure that immutable records (where currently required), ‘four eyes’ reviews and other existing control specifications are not diluted by remote working
  • designing and implementing additional client communications strategies to alleviate client concerns and back-up communication plans for situations in which business continuity planning fails
  • where group policies are relied on, creating a Jersey-based review and confirmation process to ensure appropriateness in this jurisdiction
  • communications plan for staff in relation to sickness entitlements, self-isolation, home phone bills and other matters that might impact on behaviours
  • securing contingency plan options for office deep cleaning if this should be necessary
  • back-up plans for exercising board, Principal Person or Key Person roles and other individual-specific accountabilities in the event that these are interrupted and advising the JFSC of those back-up plans.