Crystal Concise: April 2024

Our regular snapshot from the Crystal team of some of the highlights and points of note for finance and corporate comms pros around the jurisdictions this past month...

• Crown Dependencies: With beneficial ownership back on the agenda last month, senior politicians from Jersey, Guernsey and the IoM met with MPs in London to discuss progress on that front, as well as other political issues.

• BVI: The BVI Financial Services Commission (FSC) opened up a consultation on further amendments to the jurisdiction’s Business Companies Act, in order to meet recommendations from the FATF’s recent assessment of its anti-money laundering regime.

• Guernsey: A team from Moneyval were in Guernsey to assess the island’s ability to fight financial crime. The visit follows a similar assessment of Jersey towards the end of last year.

• Cayman Islands: Cayman’s government launched a new National Energy Policy last month which amongst its goals includes a commitment to reaching 100% energy from renewable sources by 2045.

• Jersey: The Government of Jersey’s latest consultation on sustainable finance came to a close last month, having sparked some significant industry discussion.

• Luxembourg: The Fondation de Luxembourg launched a climate foundation to allow individual companies to invest in climate-related projects in Luxembourg and the Greater Region.

• Social Media: Threads surpassed 150m monthly active users, while X shared that it’s now serving 250 million daily active users, the same amount that it reported in November 2022 meaning that X has seen no growth in daily users in 16 months.

• Social Media: As part of the EU Digital Services Act, the EU undertook a probe into TikTok’s parent company after TikTok Lite was launched in France and Spain without a risk assessment, potentially going against the EU’s new content law.

• More TikTok: The passing of a bill in the US could see TikTok effectively banned in the US. It’s an ongoing issue