Jersey Financial Services Commission Quarterly Report

The Jersey Financial Services Commission has today, 9 March 2004, issued its quarterly report for the period 1 October 2003 to 31 December 2003.

Headlines:

• Bank deposits increased by 7.1% to £149.3 billion during 2003, despite a fall in the last quarter of the year.

• The total value of funds under management increased by 6.9% to £31.1 billion during 2003.

• The value of collective investment funds managed in the Island stood at £98.7 billion as at 31 December 2003, under our new method of collating the statistics.

Bank Deposits
Jersey bank deposits fell by 4.3% during the last quarter of 2003 to £149.3 billion. However there was an increase of £9.9 billion (7.1%) during 2003 as whole.

Of the total deposit base at the end of 2003, £101 billion related to customer deposits and £48 billion to inter bank deposits.

Approximately 68% of bank deposits are held in currencies other than sterling. During 2003, there was a sharp increase (39% in US dollar terms) in the underlying value of US dollar balances, though this was partly offset by a decline in balances denominated in the Euro.

The number of banking licences in issue as at 31 December 2003 was 55, the same as in the previous quarter.

Company Incorporations
The total number of incorporations during the last quarter was 631 which shows an increase of 30 % over the corresponding period for last year. This trend has continued from the last quarter.

The number of 'fast track' incorporations for this quarter was 350 and the number of normal company incorporations for this quarter was 281.

Against their self-imposed target of 95% the Registry recorded a 95 % rate for normal two-day incorporations and a 99% rate for fast track companies for the quarter.

Investment Business
The total funds under investment management (class B of the Financial Services (Jersey) Law 1998) stood at £31.1 billion as at 31 December 2003, an increase during the year of 6.9%.

As at 31 December 2003 the total number of clients of investment managers was 20,710 about the same as at the end of the previous quarter.

Conclusion
David Carse, Director General of the Commission, commenting on the quarterly statistics said today, " The revised methodology for the collation of the fund statistics is considered to be a more accurate reflection of the fund business activity in the Island. On the old basis the value of funds increased during 2003, as did the value of assets under management. In both cases, this reflected the improvement in world financial markets during 2003. Whilst bank deposits have shown a fall over the last quarter there was a significant increase during 2003".

To read the press release in full, please visit the press section of www.jerseyfsc.org