Getting off the grey list is priority No. 1

Barbados’ path to maintaining its attraction as one of the global centres for financial services is clouded by the pall of being listed on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list of countries marked for enhanced scrutiny over its anti-money laundering regime.

Since the country began its foray into the world of offshore banking and international financial services, it has been fighting battle after battle with global entities, led by industrialised nations, who simply do not want us to have a share of this trillion-dollar structure.

Every political leader over the past four decades of the sector’s establishment here has had to endure serious challenges to the credibility of the international business sector as transparent and legitimate industries.

The implications of being on this adverse list of countries may have gone over the heads of many citizens of this island. We do not blame them because Barbadians are minding their business trying to handle all the other challenges of daily life.

The ability of Barbados to take all the required actions demanded of it by the FATF to prove that it is a “clean” jurisdiction has been a long and complicated path.

While the island improved its legislative framework by introducing stronger anti-money laundering and combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) laws, the FATF was not satisfied.

The agency which is headquartered in Paris, France, wanted to be assured the island was not simply ticking boxes but the administration was actually going after and prosecuting people for money laundering.

In other words, the FATF was saying to Barbados its money laundering prosecutions were too low or nearly non-existent and that was a red flag in their eyes.

It is, therefore, not surprising that more people are being slapped with money laundering charges, as authorities seek to demonstrate that we have no tolerance for the practice of seeking to integrate money from criminal activity into our financial system.

Attorney General Dale Marshall, speaking at the regional Anti-Money Laundering and Cybercrime Conference at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management, University of the West Indies, reminded the audience that even if the Caribbean had a seat at the table of these bodies, it would make little or no difference.

He conceded what most of us already know, that Caribbean jurisdictions are being unfairly labelled as posing a major threat to the global financial system, while industrialised nations are escaping that same scrutiny.

“We have had to make a lot of changes. We are, in fact, almost at the final point. . . . When we satisfy them, as we know we will, then we will get off the FATF grey list and then we anticipate getting off the EU black list. That is pretty much the state of play. We are almost there,” Mr Marshall stated then.

The FATF inspectors were on the island in January for an on-site inspection and we are eagerly anticipating, like the Attorney General, that we will finally remove this monkey from our backs.

The Cayman Islands, which has long been a moniker in popular culture as the place where the wealthy “hide” the gains from illicit activities, had its name removed from the FATF grey list three months ago, after being placed on it in January 2021.

Like Barbados, the FATF accused the Cayman Islands of not going far enough in “applying effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions” against those accused of money laundering. In addition, the FATF wanted the Cayman Islands to apply “administrative penalties and enforcement actions against regulated entities” that did not meet the AML standards.

The controversial issue of beneficial ownership information was also cited as a weakness. The Cayman Island has made significant improvements in these areas and was rewarded with delisting.

Within a few weeks, Barbadians will know whether we too have passed the FATF tests and the integrity of the island’s name will be restored, at least until a new set of rules are inevitably introduced.