By: Staff Writer
July 18, 2023
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is clamping down on wayward Caribbean jurisdictions for their deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.
The financial watchdog first said that Barbados had a high level political commitment to work with the FATF and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFTAF) and also having “taken steps” towards their AML/CFT regime by demonstrating that accurate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information is available on a timely basis, and by pursuing repatriation and sharing of confiscated assets with other countries.
They said, however, “The FATF expresses concern that Barbados failed to complete its action plan, which fully expired in April 2022. The FATF strongly urges Barbados to swiftly demonstrate significant progress in completing its action plan by October 2023 or the FATF will consider next steps if there is insufficient progress.”
For the Cayman Island, they said: “The Cayman Islands has made the following key reforms, including: (1) applying sanctions that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and taking administrative penalties and enforcement actions against obliged entities to ensure that breaches are remediated effectively and in a timely manner; (2) imposing adequate and effective sanctions in cases where relevant parties (including legal persons) do not file accurate, adequate and up to date beneficial ownership information; and (3) demonstrating that they are prosecuting all types of money laundering in line with the jurisdiction’s risk profile and that such prosecutions are resulting in the application of dissuasive, effective, and proportionate sanctions.”
For Haiti, they said: “In June 2021, Haiti made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and CFATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime. The FATF recognises the political commitment expressed at a high level and the efforts demonstrated by Haiti to advance its commitments in the midst of the challenging social, economic and security situation within the country. Haiti should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies, including by: (1) completing its ML/TF risk assessment process and disseminating the findings; (2) facilitating information sharing with relevant foreign counterparts; (3) addressing the technical deficiencies in its legal and regulatory framework that impede the implementation of AML/CFT preventive measures and implementing risk-based AML/CFT supervision for all financial institutions and DNFBPs deemed to constitute a higher ML/TF risk; (4) ensuring basic and beneficial ownership information are maintained and accessible in a timely manner; (5) ensuring a better use of financial intelligence and other relevant information by competent authorities for combatting ML and TF; (6) addressing the technical deficiencies in its ML offence and demonstrating authorities are identifying, investigating and prosecuting ML cases in a manner consistent with Haiti’s risk profile; (7) demonstrating an increase of identification, tracing and recovery of proceeds of crimes; (8) addressing the technical deficiencies in its TF offence and targeted financial sanctions regime; and (9) conducting appropriate risk-based monitoring of NPOs vulnerable to TF abuse without disrupting or discouraging legitimate NPO activities.”
For Jamaica, they said: “The FATF again expresses concern that Jamaica failed to complete its action plan, which fully expired in January 2022. The FATF strongly urges Jamaica to swiftly demonstrate significant progress in completing its action plan by October 2023 or the FATF will consider next steps, which could include calling on its members and urging all jurisdictions to apply enhanced due diligence to business relations and transactions with Jamaica.”
Panama on the other hand, the FATF said: “In June 2019, Panama made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and GAFILAT to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime. At its June 2023 plenary, the FATF made the initial determination that Panama has substantially completed its action plan and warrants an on-site assessment to verify that the implementation of AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained, and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation in the future. Panama has made the following key reforms, including: (1) strengthening its understanding of the national and sectoral ML/TF risk and informing findings to its national policies to mitigated the identified risks; (2) taking action to identify unlicensed money remitters, applying a risk-based approach to supervision of the DNFBP sector and applying effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions again AML/CFT violations; (3); verifying updated beneficial ownership information by obliged entities, establishing mechanisms to monitor the activities of offshore entities, assessing the existing risks of misuse of legal persons and arrangements to define and implement specific measures to prevent the misuse of nominee shareholders and directors, and allowing timely access to adequate and accurate beneficial ownership information; and (4) using FIU products for ML investigations, demonstrating its ability to investigate and prosecute ML involving foreign tax crimes and providing constructive and timely international cooperation with such offence, and continuing to focus on ML investigations in relation to high-risk areas identified in the NRA and MER.