On May 27, 2009, Max Property Group Plc was admitted to the Daily Official List of The Channel Islands Stock Exchange. Max Property Group is a Jersey-incorporated closed-ended property investment company.

This listing is on a primary basis and the issue of shares is the largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Europe to date in 2009. This is also the 1st IPO to have listed in the UK market since December 2008.

CISX chief executive, Tamara Menteshvili, expressed her delight that the issuer has selected the Channel Islands Stock Exchange as the recognised stock exchange and added that it is encouraging for the markets to see such a significant listing in the United Kingdom's property market “and the CISX is able to facilitate their strategic aims through the admission to the CISX Daily Official List”.

It should be noted that the CISX has more than 3 000 listings of securities issued by funds, eurobonds, structured debt, warrants and specialist debt securities.

Jersey Finance, the promotional agency for Jersey, has recently announced its intention to maintain its focus on trust and private client expertise in summer. This is to be achieved through a series of events that will follow the recent success of Annual Trust and Private Wealth Conference held by the agency in London.

On June 4, Jersey Finance chief executive, Geoff Cook, sat on the panel to a discussion forum in London on the challenges facing the private client industry.

On June 22-23, a delegation from Jersey will attend the major Transcontinental Trusts conference in Geneva. The delegation will include Robert Kirkby and Ada Muirhead of Jersey Finance and Advocate Richard Pirie of Crill Canavan. At this event, Jersey Finance will set an exhibition stand in order attracts delegates from more than 40 jurisdictions interested in the global trust industry. Also, partner at Mourant du Feu & Jeune, Giles Corbin, will give a briefing on Jersey’s new foundations law, but partner at Bedell Group, Alan Dart, will sit on a discussion panel at the conference.

According to Guernsey’s Chief Minister, Lyndon Trott, who recently returned from Washington, the political establishment in the United States is looking far more favorably on Guernsey than it used to be.

In Washington, Lyndon Trott he was leading a delegation from Guernsey in order to reinforce the jurisdiction's reputation as a transparent and co-operative low-tax jurisdiction. In 2007, the Chief Minister led a similar delegation to Washington.

Trott said that “the US is looking upon Guernsey far more favourably than it once did”. He also added, “We have got to where we are after building solid relationships in 2007 and being able to return and consolidate our efforts on the back of the OECD white listing.” He suggested that the visit was extremely important in developing Guernsey's international identity and that its white-listing should not be underestimated.

During the visit, Trott also met with the International Monetary Fund that is to inspect Guernsey in autumn.

In May, 2009 Annual Report has been released by Jersey’s Fiscal Policy Panel. The report assesses the economic outlook for Jersey and particularly underlines the need to preplan tax measures in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the jurisdiction.

According to the report, “fiscal policy should be used to stabilise the local economy. There are concerns about the long-term sustainability of the public finances and a strategy to address this should be agreed now, which could be implemented once the economy recovers.”

The report says that it is expected that the Jersey economy shrinks in 2009 and 2010 as recession all over the world reduces finance sector profits.

Regarding a longer-term perspective, the annual report makes a point that, in accordance with current forecasts, some action may be required when the economic downturn is over in order to ensure the public finances are sustainable. However, the report does not recommend any policy changes at this stage.