Deputy Nick Moakes has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Guernsey Green Finance Strategy Group. Guernsey Green Finance was launched in 2018 and is Guernsey’s sustainable finance initiative. Guernsey is strongly committed to the sustainable finance agenda as a member of United Nation’s Finance Centres for Sustainability Global Network, the Network for Greening the Financial System and the UN’s Sustainable Insurance Forum.
Guernsey’s excellence as a jurisdiction of choice for funds has been recognised in the most recent Monterey Insights annual Guernsey Fund Report. The 27th edition of the report highlighted the strength of the recovery in Guernsey’s funds sector in the Covid-19 pandemic. Figures from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission in the second quarter of 2021 showed an increase of 20% over 12 months – an all-time high of the net asset value (NAV) of funds domiciled in the island.
A team from Guernsey Finance has been taking part in the Val des Terres Everest Challenge to achieve three aims. They set out to improve their fitness levels, stay connected while working from home and raise funds for the Smile for Georgie Foundation. Team members have been spending their lunchbreaks scaling Le Val des Terres and challenged themselves to complete as many laps as possible in an hour.
Guernsey's 'pioneering work' in the sustainable finance sector has made it the jurisdiction of choice once again for Gresham House, with the specialist alternative asset manager launching its second sustainable infrastructure fund in the island. Gresham House British Sustainable Infrastructure Fund II LP (BSIF II) has secured a £100 million first close and has a target fund size of £500 million. It is a continuation of the first BSIF infrastructure fund and seeks to invest in sustainable infrastructure solutions that directly address key environmental and societal challenges.
Henry Freeman recently joined We Are Guernsey as Strategic Adviser alongside other non-executive and advisory roles. In this article he reflects on what keeps Guernsey’s finance industry at the vanguard of finance centres globally. As an investment manager and then an investment banker, I’ve spent the bulk of my career in London but have also been based across the Channel Islands at various points and now settled in Guernsey.