Transparency critical to policing charities

by Marlon Madden

Barbados remains under increased monitoring by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as the island continues to put measures in place to combat money laundering.

Late last week, the FATF noted that while Barbados had taken steps towards improving its anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime, there continued to be some “strategic deficiencies” that needed to be addressed.

“Since February 2020, when Barbados made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and CFATF (Caribbean Financial Action Task Force) to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime, Barbados has taken steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including by applying risk-based supervision and sanctions on financial institutions and trust and company service providers,” it said.

“Barbados should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies, including by demonstrating an effective application of risk-based supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs); taking appropriate measures to prevent legal persons and arrangements from being misused for criminal purposes, and ensuring that accurate and up-to-date basic and beneficial ownership information is available on a timely basis; ensure its Financial Intelligence Unit’s financial information products further assist law enforcement authorities in investigating money laundering or terrorists financing; demonstrating that money laundering investigations and prosecutions are in line with the country’s risk profile and result in sanctions, when appropriate, and reducing the backlog in completing cases; further pursuing confiscation in money launderaing cases, including by seeking assistance from foreign counterparts,” it said.

The FATF, the international anti-money laundering organisation responsible for setting standards, said it was “actively” working with jurisdictions under increased monitoring to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. When the FATF places a jurisdiction under increased monitoring, it means the country has committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to increased monitoring. This list is often externally referred to as the “grey list”.

“The FATF calls on these jurisdictions to complete their action plans expeditiously and within the agreed timeframes. The FATF welcomes their commitment and will closely monitor their progress,” it said.

The organisation said since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has provided some flexibility to jurisdictions not facing immediate deadlines to report progress on a voluntary basis.

It said: “the following countries had their progress reviewed by the FATF since June 2021: Albania, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Malta, Mauritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Senegal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe”. Botswana and Mauritius are no longer subjected to increased monitoring.

Burkina Faso, Haiti, and South Sudan were given the opportunity and chose to defer reporting. Therefore, the statements issued in February and June 2021 for these jurisdictions may not necessarily reflect the most recent status of the jurisdiction’s AML/CFT regime. Following review, the FATF now also identifies Jordan, Mali, and Turkey as jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb