Headshot of Stephen Billinghurst
Stephen Billinghurst
Director
Qualifications
  • BA (Hons) Economics and Accounting
  • ACA

Steve is the founding director of Oben Regulatory (IOM). He is a chartered accountant with over 20 years’ experience offshore. Prior to moving to the Isle of Man he led Deloitte’s Fiduciary team in Jersey delivering audit and regulatory and transactional advisory services for businesses with local, Guernsey and European based group entities.

Steve moved to the Isle of Man in 2009 as a partner in the Deloitte office, working with financial and gaming regulated entities in an advisory capacity, as well as acting in a number of liquidator roles under Manx legislation. More recently he led PwC Isle of Man’s Advisory Services deepening their regulatory investigation and advisory services and developing their blockchain and broader fintech propositions. Regulatory engagements included financial service licence application reviews, regulatory directions and post inspection remediation reviews. During his time at PwC, Steve worked with the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority on behalf of a client to review and update the Crowdfunding regulations to broaden their scope and provide for secondary trading.

Steve has worked with the Isle of Man Government’s Digital Agency as the Regulatory Lead of the blockchain team since its launch in February 2019. In 2021 the remit broadened into the wider digital finance and fintech arena. In this period, Steve has worked directly with blockchain enabled businesses looking to establish on the Isle of Man, worked with the Financial Services Authority to establish Guidance Notes on a taxonomy for digital tokens under the existing regulatory and legislative framework and provided guidance and commentary on developments in the areas of cryptocurrency and digital asset and finance.

Steve has assisted businesses to understand the Isle of Man’s AML/CFT framework and its application to digital finance businesses.

Steve keeps abreast of developments in the fintech area and is currently exploring the impact of central bank digital currencies on economies such as those of the Crown Dependencies. Steve has written a number of articles on crypto and digital assets and has presented on these topics on behalf of the Isle of Man Government.

Steve’s most recent engagement was supporting the Isle of Man Government Business Agency with the introduction of its cannabis based medicinal product export licensing and regulatory framework.

LATEST POSTS FROM Stephen Billinghurst
  • 11.01.2023 Regulatory
    Isle of Man ObenView 1: FSA announces AML/CFT thematic for TCSP sector
  • 17.08.2021 Law Regulatory
    Inconsistency over cannabis in the crown dependencies causes confusion for compliance officers