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Finance is the island’s largest industry and it has supported a healthy economy in the island for the last few decades - but what do the latest stock market falls mean for Jersey?

Vigilance not worry

Jeff Cook from Jersey Finance said that “we don’t need to be worried, but we do need to vigilant”.

He explained that more than half of the finance business in Jersey is in bank deposits, which are “not affected at all” by the stock market.

The other major part of Jersey’s finance industry is funds administration – which “isn’t really affected by fluctuations in the stock market to any great degree”.

No immediate concern

Those in the island who will be worst effected are investment managers, particularly if they are paid on a performance related fee based on the value of the funds:

“If the value of the fund is going down their performance fee is generating less income,” Jeff explained.��

“We do have some investment managers, we have some very good ones, but it’s not a major part of our finance industry - so in the short to medium term we don’t really see any significant negative impact for Jersey.”

In the long term

Relief then that Jersey’s finance industry looks stable for the meantime, but what about it’s long term health?

Jeff believes that this will depend on what happens in the US, the market responsible for the downward trend in the first place, but he believes the American government has shown “a real determination to tackle the issue”.

“The rest of the impact is really knock-on effect from the US – there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the economic situation in Asia, India, China, the Middle East or indeed Europe.”