Police Force gearing up for digital currency crimes

by Marlon Madden

While there have been no reports of fraud in the digital currency space in Barbados to date, officials are giving the assurance that adequate measures are in place as regulators and other stakeholders take proactive steps to prevent such an occurrence.

Acting Inspector of Police within the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) Sonia Thompson said members of her team have been receiving valuable training from international organisations that will help to position them to sufficiently deal with such an issue should it arise.

Thompson was addressing the Financial Fraud in Barbados session of the Central Bank of Barbados 2021 Domestic Financial Institutions Conference on Tuesday.

“Outside of that, in terms of our other investigations, we have not found anything relating to the virtual asset and cryptocurrency to date, but for sure, the force recognises that it is there so we are being proactive,” she said, adding that she was also aware that financial crimes were “constantly evolving”.

“There is the capacity building and so far some members have been trained as it relates to investigating aspects of cryptocurrency. We have been trained with recognised international bodies, and there is also the retraining.
So that is something for sure that is at the forefront when we are talking about our strategies in fighting fraud related matters,” she assured.

Taking a broader look at the financial technology (Fintech) space, Deputy Director of Bank Supervision at the Central Bank Jennifer Clarke-Murrell also gave assurance that the Central Bank was “keeping pace” with what was taking place.

Pointing to the regulatory sandbox, she said “we use that space to observe any new players especially Fintechs
or those that might not necessarily fall under the Central Bank or the Financial Services Commission in terms
of what they do”.

“But it helps us to determine if we need to have additional regulation, new regulation or new regulators to deal with those particular players,” she said.

“They are also part of a joint supervisory group that have discussion on the international standards to understand what is evolving, what do we need to do collaboratively and if there are any training that we need to provide to our licencees to ensure they understand what is coming down the pipeline.

“Then individually we have those conversations with our licencees as to what are they seeing in their space, how are they interacting with the Fintechs, how are they interacting with the cryptocurrencies, to understand if there is a concern and how we should address that concern from a regulatory perspective if need be. So those are some of the things we are doing,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) Kester Guy said building capacity within the regulators, the central bank and other stakeholders was necessary to ensure high standards
were maintained.

“While we acknowledge that systems are developing, we already note that fintechs are here and are operating. In a sense I think there is need for even greater collaboration and dialogue to ensure that the operations of these entities doesn’t put Barbados in a negative light when we hear global reports coming out and seeing Barbados’ name recorded among the jurisdictions,” said Guy.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb