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CO-OPERAT ION AND CO-ORDINAT ION
Supervisory
Given the international focus of the Island’s
regulated businesses, together with the significant
proportion of them that are members of groups
established or operating elsewhere, the safe and
effective sharing and communication of relevant
information and intelligence between interested
supervisory authorities and enforcement agencies
remain an important and integral part of the
effective supervision of internationally active
entities.
The Authority is committed to establishing new,
and developing further its existing working
relationships with other supervisory authorities
to allow the appropriate and timely exchange of
information to facilitate cross-border and cross-
sectoral supervision of individual legal entities and
their groups.
In addition, the Authority believes that responsible
and appropriate international co-operation can
be an effective and powerful tool assisting both
supervisory authorities and law enforcement
agencies in the protection of global financial
systems from those who wish to abuse them to
launder money, finance terrorist activities or the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Co-operation in domestic supervision
In developing further the Authority’s legislative
framework in respect of AML/CFT, it liaises about
matters of common interest with the Department
of Home Affairs, the Isle of Man Financial
Intelligence Unit and Customs and Excise. The
Authority also sits on the AML/CFT Advisory Group,
which provides a forum for discussions between
Government, regulators and industry.
In addition, the Authority’s responsibilities in
relation to the supervision of regulated entities
mean that it is important for it to maintain a
dialogue on such matters with the Treasury’s
Income Tax and Social Security Divisions, and
the Office of Fair Trading. Legislation also makes
provision for the Authority to share information
with the Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme
and the Isle of Man Pensions Ombudsman where
appropriate.
Consolidated / Group Supervision
Many entities regulated by the Authority are
subsidiaries of entities regulated in other
jurisdictions, and a small number have branch
operations in other jurisdictions.
In order to understand fully the nature, scale and
complexity of such entities, their activities and the
risks to which they may be exposed, it is necessary
to understand the intra-group relationships and
dependencies that may exist.
The Authority is a member of, and participates
in, a number of supervisory colleges in respect
of groups of which Isle of Man regulated entities
are members (most notably for banking and
insurance); and liaises with supervisors elsewhere
about matters of common interest including
systemic risk, group-wide solvency and group crisis
management plans.
The further development of an appropriate
framework for insurance group supervision is
an important aspect of the Authority’s work to
implement its updated regulatory regime for
insurance business.
Exchange of information
Similar to other supervisory bodies, the Authority
has a statutory duty of confidentiality in respect
of information collected in the performance of its
statutory functions. Such information is classified
as restricted information and may only be disclosed
to third parties with the consent of the person
from whom the information was received and, if
different, the person to whom it relates, subject
to the statutory ‘gateways’ set out in the various
legislation that the Authority operates under.
These ‘gateways’ permit the Authority to disclose
relevant restricted information, subject to certain
safeguards, with regulators and other limited
persons.
Isle of Man Financial Services Authority Annual Report 2016/17 • 19