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POL ICY DEVELOPMENT
REGUL ATORY DEVELOPMENTS
The year to 31 March 2017 saw the introduction of
the ‘Alternative Banking Regime’ with the
establishment of new classes of deposit taking
business for persons accepting deposits from only
restricted depositors (Class 1(2)) and representative
offices of foreign banks (Class 1(3)). In addition,
staff were involved in the production of consumer
focused material relating to pension scams and
risky pension investments and amended various
items of regulatory secondary legislation.
The Authority continues to progress actions arising
from the General Review of Collective Investment
Schemes. Over this period the Authority has liaised
closely with the IOMWFSA in connection with
possible changes suggested by that association
to elements of the regulatory requirements that
may assist the industry; as well as discussing
draft legislation ahead of formal consultation in
relation to forthcoming changes to the regulatory
status of a limited number of closed-ended
investment companies.
Further details on a selection of important policy
developments from this period follow.
CROWDFUNDING
The final consultation on crowdfunding, issued in
December 2015, contained draft legislation and
rules for crowdfunding platforms. The rules will be
applied as licence conditions in the first instance to
enable the Authority to test their appropriateness
before ultimately including them in the Financial
Services Rule Book. The legislation was approved
by Tynwald in April 2016 and came into effect on
1 May 2016.
UPDAT ING OF THE F INANCIAL
SERVICES RULE BOOK
The Financial Services Rule Book contains the
detailed rules for all FSA08 licenceholders, and is
updated from time to time. Over this period a full
consultation exercise took place, culminating in the
updated Rule Book (in a new user-friendly tabular
format) being approved in Tynwald in October
2016 and coming into force on 1 January 2017.
CREDI T UNIONS
Over this period Authority staff have been
working with the Attorney General’s Chambers
to prepare a draft Credit Unions (Amendment)
Bill. A consultation on the draft Bill was issued in
March 2017.
BENEF ICIAL OWNERSHI P
The Isle of Man Government has entered into
certain agreements with the UK Government that
include the establishment and maintenance of a
‘non-public’ beneficial ownership register for Isle of
Man incorporated legal entities. This involves the
Authority, in that the agreement with the UK
includes a level of ‘oversight’ of the register by the
Authority. The Authority has worked in partnership
with Treasury and other interested parties over this
period on the Beneficial Ownership Bill and
ancillary matters.
I NSURANCE SUPERV I SORY FRAMEWORK
The Island’s regulatory framework for insurance
supervision is set out in the IA08.
In 2012 the ICP project was launched, the objective
of which is to update the Island’s regulatory
The Policy and Authorisations Division is primarily responsible for the
maintenance of the Authority’s legislative framework. It is necessary
to update legislation occasionally for various reasons such as when
the ‘boundaries’ of the regulatory perimeter need to change to
reflect innovation in the marketplace, or to remain in compliance with
international standards, where appropriate.
24 • Isle of Man Financial Services Authority Annual Report 2016/17