About
CHANNEL ISLANDS
Jersey
offshore banks
Jersey offshore service
providers
Channel
Islands offshore banks
The Channel Islands are a group of islands in the English Channel, off
the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the
Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. They are British Crown
dependencies, but neither is part of the United Kingdom.
Economy
Financial services - banking, fund management, insurance - account for
about 23% of employment and about 55% of total income in this tiny, prosperous
Channel Island economy.
Tourism, manufacturing, and horticulture, mainly tomatoes and cut flowers,
have been declining. Financial services, construction, retail, and the
public sector have been growing.
Light tax and death duties make Guernsey a popular tax haven. The evolving
economic integration of the EU nations is changing the environment under
which Guernsey operates.
Tourism is the major industry in the smaller islands.
Guernsey's horticultural and greenhouse activities have been more significant
than in Jersey, and Guernsey has maintained light industry as a higher
proportion of its economy than Jersey. Jersey's economy since the 1980s
has been substantially more reliant on finance.
Both Bailiwicks issue their own banknotes and coins, which circulate freely
in all the islands alongside UK coinage and Bank of England and Scottish
banknotes.
Currency:
Guernsey pound 0.5302 (2008 est.), 0.4993 (2007), 0.5418
(2006), 0.5493 (2005), 0.5462 (2004)
note: the Guernsey pound is at par with the British pound.
Jersey pounds per US dollar 0.5302 (2008
est.), 0.4993 (2007), 0.5418 (2006), 0.5493 (2005), 0.5462 (2004)
note: the Jersey pound is at par with the British pound.
See Jersey and Channel Islands for more info.