The Attorney General's Chambers published two draft Bills on Wednesday 19th December, to support a process of public consultation.  Public meetings will be held on Thursday 10th January (West Constituency, at Half Tree Hollow Community Centre) and Monday 14th January (East, Jamestown Community Centre), both commencing at 7:30pm.  Relevant officials will attend, along with the Banking Supervisor, Mr Alan Savery.

The Bills are a Financial Services Bill and a Money Laundering Bill, both of which are important at both a local and an international level.  Locally, the Bills aim to protect St. Helenians from falling victim to unscrupulous financial service providers as the economy begins to develop in preparation for tourism.  At the international level, the new laws are necessary for St. Helena to comply with international obligations and ensure that St. Helena itself and businesses operating here are not subjected to sanctions by other countries and territories.

So, the Financial Services Bill will extend regulations similar to those we already have for banks, to cover a wide range of activities concerning financial services including (for example) investment services, insurance, and pensions.  People will not be able to provide such services in or from St. Helena, without being licenced to do so; having been licenced, they will then be supervised in the way they operate.

As to money laundering the Attorney General, Ken Baddon, explains that money laundering is any process by which proceeds of crime, or money intended to finance crime, ('dirty money') is concealed or converted into something which appears not to be dirty.  A simple example would be a forger who used his forged £50 note to buy a small item and get that item plus 'clean money' as change.  But there are many much more sophisticated examples.

The Banking Regulator, Alan Savery, commented "although St Helena is relatively insulated from the problems of international money laundering and terrorist financing, we have seen examples of suspicious transactions on a small scale over the last three years.  A very important aspect of this proposed legislation is giving the authorities the power to investigate and deal with suspicious activity to protect both the residents of St Helena and the reputation of the island.  This will become a more important issue when the airport is built as that should lead to a higher profile for St Helena and therefore a greater risk of attracting undesirable activity.".

Office of the Chief Secretary

2nd January 2008.

Financial Services Legislation