“The CISX has for the last 20 months been the subject of investigations by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission in respect of certain of its historic activities. There are no investigations in respect of current matters,” its website said on 14 October. It added that the investigations were “ongoing,” that they “highlighted details in the complex and unusual structure of the CISX” and that the exchange had “made provisions of around £500,000 ($808,466) in respect of costs to date.”

The exchange has said that “it is intended to seek to establish a better structured and regulated corporate vehicle...proposals are hoped to be available in around a month”.

The fund – which incorporates a number of portfolios - was suspended in March 2009 by the old Financial Services Authority, which had declared it insolvent. Its value then was £363.6 million but by March 2011 it had declined to £148.8 million. Net assets in the Guernsey cell companies that made up Arch cru's funds - which were floated on the CISX long ago – are now said to be £81.1 million. The investment house brought in to dismantle the Arch cru fund is thought to have returned £136.4 million into the hands of investors since the regulators first took action. The exchange suspended all 14 listed Arch cru fund cells earlier this month, casting doubt on further returns of capital. It has done this before, however.

“The exchange is still accepting certain listings applications from existing debt issuers, existing trading companies and existing open and closed ended funds,” Fiona le Poidevin, chief executive of the Guernsey Finance, the promotional agency of the island’s financial services sector.  

Others are decrying the secrecy in which the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and its fellow-regulators allegedly shroud their manoeuvres against advisors.

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