Speaking with eprivateclient earlier this month, 50 Most Influential and director at Saffery Champness Registered Fiduciaries in Guernsey, Helen Green, said there was little the island’s financial sector could do to change the popular press’ perception of Guernsey and other international finance centres.

In the wake of the Panama Papers furore, Ms Green said the perception that IFCs were ‘tax havens’ was something that cannot be stopped.

“Guernsey is heavily regulated in comparison to the UK or the USA’s Delaware. Nothing will change the popular press’s perception – we cannot stop that,” Ms Green said.

“99.999 percent of offshore work is legitimate. At Saffery Champness we know all our clients and whose money we look after – it is not secretive nor is a single client involved in the Panama Papers scandal.”

Ms Green said that in terms of transparency and regulation there ”is not much else Guernsey can do.” Citing a recent MONEYVAL report on Guernsey, where the only criticisms the Channel Island received were for the low levels of fines handed out and the lack of suspicious transactions reported – both which highlighted the well-regulated and transparent nature of Guernsey’s financial industry, Ms Green said.

She told eprivateclient that in reality Guernsey is not a tax haven. 

“There is a 20 percent income tax for residents but we don’t need as much tax take as we pay to see the GP, the spend on the welfare state is manageable [only 436 people are unemployed in Guernsey] and we have a relatively simple infrastructure (ie motorways, trains etc) that costs a lot. It is a nonsense that we are a tax haven.”