BAHAMAS ONLY THE SEC0ND JURISDICTION IN CARIBBEAN, SOUTH AND N0RTH AMERICAN REGI0NS TO ATTAIN SUCH STANDING
NASSAU, Bahamas — The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) yesterday said it re-rated The Bahamas on two of its 40 recommendations, making the jurisdiction only the second in the region to be largely compliant with all 40 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations, The Nassau Guardian reported on Friday, December 23, in an article written by Paige McCartney.
Those two recommendations, on which the country was previously only partially compliant, were Recommendation 8, which deals with non-profit organizations; and Recommendation 15, which deals with new technologies and addresses the effective regulation and supervision/monitoring of virtual asset service providers.
“The Bahamas has been in an enhanced follow-up process, following the adoption of the CFATF mutual evaluation report, which assessed the effectiveness of The Bahamas’ anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) measures and the country’s compliance with the FATF Recommendations. In line with the CFATF Procedures for the Fourth Round of AML/CFT Mutual Evaluations, The Bahamas has reported back to the CFATF on the progress it has made to strengthen its AML/CFT framework,” the CFATF said in a statement on Thursday, December 22.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG), in a statement on Thursday, noted that with this rating, The Bahamas has become only the second jurisdiction in the Caribbean, South and North American regions to attain such standing.
“The country’s Fifth Follow-Up Report was released today by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and documents the analysis of The Bahamas’ progress in addressing the technical compliance deficiencies identified in the published 2017 mutual evaluation and revisions of the Financial Action Task Force’s Recommendations,” the OAG stated.
“The Bahamas, as a result of the progress in strengthening its framework to tackle money laundering, terrorist, and proliferation financing since the 2017 published mutual evaluation report, was assessed by financial experts of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and received re-ratings of ‘compliant’ on the last two recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force’s 40 Recommendations, that were rated ‘partially compliant’. Those recommendations notably held the requirements for non-profit organizations (Recommendation 8) and virtual assets (Recommendation 15).”
In September, Attorney General Ryan Pinder said he was cautiously optimistic on the re-rating, stating, “I think when you look internationally, the view of The Bahamas in AML now is rather positive. I think that generally the global marketplace and the global regulators have a view that we are working hard to remain as compliant as possible, and even when we venture into new opportunities, we keep our AML framework up to date.”
See article in The Nassau Guardian at https://thenassauguardian.com/bahamas-now-compliant-with-all-40-fatf-recommendations/
CFATF 55TH PLENARY AND WORKING GROUP MEETING: As a result of The Bahamas’ progress in strengthening its framework to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing since their 2017 mutual evaluation, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) has re-rated the country on 2 of the 40 Recommendations. Photo from left to right: Members of the Head table of the CFATF- Ms. Camille Renie, Legal Advisor; WGFI Co-Chair Mr. Francis Arana (Cayman Islands); WGFI Co-Chair Ms. Celeste McCalla; Ms. Dawne Spicer, Executive Director; Ms. Cheryl Lister (Bermuda), CFATF Chairman (2021-2022); Mr. Loxly Ricketts, Deputy Executive Director; Mr. Samuel Bulgin, (Cayman Islands) CFATF Deputy Chairman (2021-2022); and Mr. Ryan Pinder (The Bahamas), CFATF Immediate Past Chairman (2021-2022).
