ARTICLE
24 August 2016

Jersey Has Weathered The Panama Papers Storm

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Ogier

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Ogier provides legal advice on BVI, Cayman, Guernsey, Irish, Jersey and Luxembourg law. Our network of locations also includes Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. Legal services for the corporate and financial sectors form the core of our business, principally in the areas of banking and finance, corporate, investment funds, dispute resolution, private equity and private wealth. We also have strong practices in the areas of employee benefits and incentives, employment law, regulatory, restructuring and corporate recovery and property. Our corporate administration business, Ogier Global, works closely with Ogier's partner-led legal teams to incorporate and administer a wide variety of vehicles, offering clients integrated legal and corporate administration services. We have the knowledge and expertise to handle the most demanding and complex transactions and provide expert, efficient and cost effective services to all our clients.
Jersey has weathered the storm caused by the Panama Papers revelations, Ogier corporate finance lawyer Richard Daggett has told Property Week in their latest feature on the Channel Islands.
Jersey Wealth Management

Jersey has weathered the storm caused by the Panama Papers revelations, Ogier corporate finance lawyer Richard Daggett has told Property Week in their latest feature on the Channel Islands.

Richard – who was made a partner last November – said that the high standard of regulation in Jersey compared to Panama meant that the two offshore centres were seen very differently by clients and intermediaries.  He says that the level of regulatory oversight in Jersey means that clients know that they will not be tarred with the same brush as those caught up in the initial Panama Papers coverage at the beginning of April.

The stories concerned a leaked database of clients of Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm and corporate services provider, and revealed some of the offshore holdings of many current and former politicians and their families.  But Richard – who works in Ogier's corporate finance team - said that the authorities and industry in Jersey had worked diligently over many years to ensure that standards of regulation and compliance meant that the Island's industry was not just clean, but also that it was seen to be clean by international bodies and regulators.

He said: "It's not as if we've suddenly turned the ship around.  For years we have been consistently recognised as being highly compliant with international standards, which is a good way to differentiate yourself when things like Panama Papers are filling the papers.  I do a lot of work in the real estate space and I found very little nervousness from our clients.

"People are very much of the view that what happened with Panama was not something they would associate with Jersey. In terms of deals, actually it's had a surprisingly limited effect."

You can see the full report here (subscription required).

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