William Mason

William Mason is the Director General of the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.  He served on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors between 2014 and 2022 where he chaired both the Audit and Risk Committee and the Standards Assessment Working Group, establishing IAIS’s regulatory assessment programme.  He has a strong interest in Supervisory Technology and Green Finance.  Under his leadership the Guernsey Financial Services Commission has developed:

• the Guernsey Green Fund framework (2018) and the Natural Capital Fund framework (2022), both possibly global firsts in environmental finance;
• bought into force environmentally sensitive green capital rules for life insurers possibly another world first for insurance regulation; and
• made moves, including planting 53,000 trees in 2022 in an ecologically advantageous fashion, towards becoming a net zero regulator.

Prior to becoming a financial regulator, William worked at the UK Cabinet Office. Earlier in his career William gained private sector experience working for an international energy firm on three continents and a US strategy house, Monitor Group.  From 2006 - 2010 he supervised large insurers and investment firms at the UK FSA where he was also asked to lead an emergency credit institutions team during the Global Financial Crisis.  In 2010 he moved to become Head of Risk at the Central Bank of Ireland where he reinvented Irish financial services supervisory processes as it recovered from the Euro crisis.