Six website checks for a JFSC-regulated firm

The 6 checks in the video

The video opens with a question: does your firm’s website need a compliance check? For regulated firms, every claim matters. This page is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Your compliance officer and your sector’s code of practice have the final word.

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   Step 1: Identify the firm

   0:18

   Show the correct legal name and contact details.

   The Financial Services (Advertising) (Jersey) Order 2008 (opens in a new tab) applies to written and broadcast financial service advertisements, and its definitions take in material published on the internet or held in electronic form. Article 5 says every advertisement must name the person issuing it, name the provider too if that is a different firm, and give a postal or electronic address for the provider.

   On a website, the simplest way to meet that on every page is the footer: the firm’s full legal name, its registered address and a contact route, so the details are there wherever a visitor lands.

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   Step 2: State your status

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   Use the wording your sector code requires.

   Article 6 of the Order requires an advertisement to name the authority that authorised the provider, which for a Jersey firm is the Jersey Financial Services Commission. The Order doesn’t prescribe the words.

   The JFSC’s codes of practice (opens in a new tab) add their own rules, and they are worded differently. The Trust Company Business and Investment Business codes (paragraph 4.1 in each) require firms to disclose on stationery and advertising that they are regulated by the JFSC. The General Insurance Mediation Business code (paragraph 7.3) puts it in terms of marketing and sales material. Take the wording from your own code and agree it with your compliance officer.

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   Step 3: Review every claim

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   Keep figures and examples clear and current.

   Article 6 also requires every advertisement to be clear, fair and not misleading. Article 3 adds that an altered advertisement counts as a new one, so each edit to a page is a new advertisement to check, not a tweak to an approved one.

   The codes go further. The Investment Business code says words such as “guarantee” and “assured” must be treated with great caution, and it allows a statement of fact only where the firm has reasonable grounds to believe it will stay true for as long as the advertisement runs. A fees page, a performance figure or a team list from three years ago fails that test without anyone touching it.

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   Step 4: Control brand use

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   Check permission before using regulator marks.

   Under Article 6 an advertisement must not claim that it, or any service it promotes, has been approved by the JFSC. A regulator’s logo placed beside your own can read as exactly that kind of endorsement.

   We found no JFSC rule or guidance that lets firms use its logo, so don’t add it without the JFSC’s written permission. Name the regulator in words in your status line instead, and apply the same care to the marks of any other regulator or official body.

5. 5

   Step 5: Keep page records

   1:06

   Save dated versions when content changes.

   Article 7 of the Order requires the firm that issues an advertisement to keep, for 10 years after the last date it was issued: a copy of it, a record of when it was issued, who approved its form and content and when, who approved its issue and when, and where and how it was spread.

   Because an altered page counts as a new advertisement, each published version needs its own record. Ask whoever runs your website whether they can save a dated copy of every page each time it changes, and keep the approver’s name and date alongside it.

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   Step 6: Get sign-off

   1:18

   Have your compliance team review the final site.

   The record-keeping rule assumes someone approves each advertisement, so build that step into the launch. Have your compliance team review the finished site as visitors will see it, including the footer, contact forms, downloadable PDFs and any news or blog pages, and record who approved it and when.

   The site also needs what every Jersey business website needs, such as a privacy notice and cookie consent that works before analytics load. Our guide to what a Jersey business website has to show covers those.

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