But the Jersey Association of Trust Companies (JATCo), which represents 91 member firms, is concerned that business growth could be adversely affected if budgets are slashed unwisely.
s reported on Monday, the Finance Committee have pledged to make cuts across the board to improve efficiency and cut non-essential services.
ATCo president Richard Boléat said: ‘We applaud the move to reduce States expenditure and are pleased to see that the committee listened to the comments from business and the public.
But £20 million is a lot of money and I guess there is going to be a tendency to go to the lines of least resistance.
If I were Senator Terry Le Sueur I would be going to the heads of all the committees asking for a commitment to save money.
But what we would say is for goodness sake be selective, because you don’t want to damage anything that brings in fee income from outside – and that includes the finance industry, and tourism.
It is this fee income which enables businesses to employ people and to pay taxes.
Last month the Economic Development Committee agreed to grant Jersey Finance Ltd a total of £600,000 for next year towards promoting the Island as an international finance centre.
Mr Boléat said it was a start, but that as an industry the more it had to work with the more it could achieve.
‘There are a lot of untapped markets we haven’t been to.
We would encourage the States to do as much as they can,’ he said.
‘Obviously business growth makes money for the practitioners, but they also pay more in tax.
We would urge the Finance Committee not to make any cuts to budgets allocated to business development, for the financial services industry, or indeed to any other sector.
It is precisely business development that will provide the future growth for the Island and thus revenue for the Treasury.
