Guernsey’s financial services regulator approved 30 new investment funds during the fourth quarter of last year, while the net asset value of funds under management and administration fell by 0.6 per cent, according to the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the supervisory authority for financial services in Guernsey.

Guernsey’s financial services regulator approved 26 new investment funds during the first quarter of the year, while the net asset value of funds under management and administration fell by 0.6 per cent, according to the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the supervisory authority for financial services in Guernsey.

Figures from the commission show that 24 new funds were approved during the second quarter of 2013, 33 during the third, 30 during the final quarter and 26 in the first quarter of 2014.

“In particular, this is a vote of confidence in Guernsey’s dual regulatory regime which has been developed in response to the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. The directive first came into effect in the middle of 2013 but several jurisdictions, such as the UK, took advantage of the transitory year for its implementation and so now the focus is on 22 July 2014,” said Fiona Le Poidevin, chief executive of Guernsey Finance.

Overall, while 113 funds were approved, 121 funds ended their licences during the last 12 months, resulting in a net loss of eight over the year. Just taking the first quarter of this year, there is a net gain of seven.

The net asset value of all funds under management and administration in Guernsey fell by £1.8 billion (0.6 per cent) during the first quarter to £264.2 billion (£448.98 billion) at the end of March.

However, the net asset value of Guernsey funds under management and administration grew by £1.2 billion (0.7 per cent) during the quarter to reach £179.1 billion, comprising an increase of Guernsey open-ended funds by £0.9 billion (2.2 per cent) to £42.6 billion and an increase of Guernsey closed-ended funds by £0.4 billion (0.4 per cent) to £136.5 billion.

Last month, Guernsey announced that the recently-signed global pact on exchange of information for tax purposes will be effective in the jurisdiction from the beginning of August.

In early May, meeting in Paris, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Council of Europe, drew up a “Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters”. It has been billed as a radical step towards ending practices such as Swiss bank secrecy in the long term (Switzerland is one of the jurisdictions covered by the agreement).

Guernsey has also recently concluded further Tax Information Exchange Agreements with Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which takes the total to 55. Guernsey has also recently signed a Double Taxation Arrangement with Monaco, which takes the total number of comprehensive agreements signed to 11.