The Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999 provides the overarching legal foundation for Jersey’s anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime. It sets out mechanisms for confiscation, forfeiture, and the prevention of the misuse of Jersey’s financial system. Although the Law does not directly implement wire transfer requirements, it underpins all obligations set out in secondary legislation and regulatory codes that do, including the EU Legislation (Information Accompanying Transfers of Funds) (Jersey) Regulations 2017.

The Law defines key concepts such as criminal property, predicate conduct, and money laundering, and creates offences for handling criminal property, failing to report suspicions, tipping off, and interfering with investigations. It also establishes the powers of the Court to make confiscation and forfeiture orders in cases involving relevant criminal conduct.

Scope & Definitions Relevant to WTR

The Law includes detailed definitions of financial services business and virtual asset service providers under Schedule 2. These include institutions offering money or value transfer services, issuing and managing means of payment, e-money services, and virtual asset transfers. Such definitions form the regulated perimeter for Jersey’s WTR obligations, helping to determine which entities are subject to customer due diligence, monitoring, and reporting duties.

Schedule 2 also identifies services that involve the transfer of funds or virtual assets across borders, thereby intersecting directly with the requirements of the FATF Travel Rule. These include traditional banks, payment service providers, e-money institutions, and businesses exchanging or transferring virtual assets on behalf of others.

Enforcement Powers & Asset Recovery

The Law empowers the Royal Court to make confiscation orders where a defendant has benefited from relevant criminal conduct, including financial crime involving fund transfers. It sets out mechanisms for restraining assets pre-trial through saisies judiciaires and mandates that financial institutions provide information to facilitate investigations. These measures help ensure the availability of financial data relevant to suspicious or structured transactions and support cross-border enforcement cooperation.

Of particular relevance to WTR, Article 41A introduces provisions for the issuance of orders requiring account monitoring or customer information from financial services businesses. These orders ensure that the authorities can access data necessary to trace the origin and destination of funds, consistent with the Travel Rule’s goal of transactional transparency.

Reporting & Intelligence Gathering

The Law requires disclosures to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) where there is knowledge or suspicion of money laundering. Articles 32 to 34D create a robust reporting framework for financial institutions and professionals, requiring prompt and good faith disclosures of suspicious activity.

These provisions are essential for enforcing wire transfer compliance, particularly when red flags emerge from fund transfers that lack complete or coherent originator and beneficiary data.

Additionally, the Law outlines the powers of the FIU to receive and analyse financial information, enabling the identification of illicit financial flows through the financial system. This reinforces the ability of Jersey’s authorities to supervise and enforce the integrity of both domestic and cross-border transfers.

Virtual Assets & WTR Alignment

The Law explicitly covers virtual asset service providers (VASPs) under Schedule 2, ensuring that transfers of virtual assets are regulated in a manner consistent with traditional wire transfers. This inclusion aligns with the FATF’s updated guidance, which extends Recommendation 16 to digital asset transfers. It supports the application of Travel Rule standards by requiring that VASPs collect, retain, and where necessary, transmit customer and transactional data for each virtual asset transfer.

These obligations are supplemented through the 2017 Regulations and the Travel Rule (Transfer of Virtual Assets) Code 2024, but their enforceability ultimately relies on the powers and offences set out in the Proceeds of Crime Law.

Conclusion: WTR Compliance Integration

The Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999 provides the legislative backbone for enforcing wire transfer regulation across Jersey’s financial system. It defines the scope of regulated entities, establishes the criminal offences and reporting duties necessary for monitoring fund flows, and equips authorities with the powers to secure and act on financial intelligence. Though it does not itself set out wire transfer technical requirements, the Law integrates seamlessly with the instruments that do, ensuring Jersey meets its international obligations under the FATF Travel Rule. Through its comprehensive and enforceable structure, the Law enables transparency, accountability, and the disruption of illicit finance via both traditional and virtual transfer channels.