The Guernsey Financial Services Commission has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

The Guernsey communiqué, every nuance of which betrays the deep resentment of the persecuted, states that the MOU "has been signed in the spirit of mutual co-operation and information exchange seen as crucial by the G20 countries and international standard setters for financial services supervisors."

In a furious razzia through the acronyms of the great powers' international control system, the commission states that it is "committed to international regulatory co-operation and is a signatory to the IOSCO MMoU and the IAIS MMoU [master or multilateral MOUs - individualism is frowned upon mightily]. It also has numerous bilateral regulatory co-operative agreements in place; and, through ESMA, has in place MoUs covering AIFMD with 27 members of the EEA."

It then lists the authors of its discomfort.

•     The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
•     The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the Group of International Insurance Centre Supervisors (GIICS).
•     The Group of International Finance Centre Supervisors (GIFCS).
•     The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - of which Guernsey is involved through the United Kingdom's membership.
•     The Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL).

Guernsey and Jersey were going to be the first jurisdictions that MONEYVAL evaluated by means of its new, more intrusive, interrogation technique. They demurred and, eventually, the Isle of Man was the first recipient of that honour instead. By all accounts it did very well. MONEYVAL's inspectors have now moved on to Armenia, giving the Crown Dependencies a little more breathing space.

The Guernsey communiqué rounds itself off with a list that has only two things on it: the two organisations that influence all the others. These are "the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BIS)" (here the GFSC is conflating the actual committee with the Bank for International Settlements that founded it and which forms one of the few great pillars of world governance) and the Financial Action Task Force, which sets money-laundering standards throughout the globe at its behest.