Farley: Barbados off FAFT grey list but more tests to pass

Chairman of the Anti-Money Laundering Network, Senator Reginald Farley has praised the hard work of all involved in Barbados’ recent removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) List of Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring or grey list.

But he has made it clear that the country still has work to do to ensure it complies with other anti-money laundering rules.

He outlined the journey and the comprehensive steps involved in the removal from the grey list as he delivered the keynote address at the Compliance Unit of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority’s findings release of its Anti-Money Laundering Sectoral Risk Assessment for Attorneys-at-law and Real Estate Agents, on Thursday.

Senator Farley noted that in February 2020, Barbados and the FATF agreed on an action plan of several items, which needed to be addressed in the anti-money laundering framework. He pointed out that even though the island had met all of the requirements set out, the work must continue.

“This is just a point along a continuum…. All that that positive result is saying is that we have met the requirements such as they are as of this date. We now face in another 18 months to two years, the start of round five which is a new round of international anti-money laundering rules, regulations, and approaches,” he said.

“We also face ongoing requirements to meet the technical compliance rules….  These recommendations change, and…as a country, …we must do what is necessary to ensure that our rules, regulations, and practices are kept up to date with those recommendations.”

Stressing the importance of the government paying attention and working assiduously over the years to have Barbados removed from the FATF’s grey list, Senator Farley explained that being on the list was a risk to the ability of citizens and investors to do business.

“Our good citizens will now be in a position to get on with their business – export their products, sell their services, invest in other jurisdictions and the like,” he indicated.

Senator Farley is looking forward to Barbados’ removal from the European Union blacklist and the United Kingdom blacklist. He said Barbados had undertaken the required reforms and demonstrated that the implemented actions were sustainable, and there was a high level of political commitment to implementing and continuing the anti-money laundering framework.

He stated that Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Attorney General Dale Marshall strongly support the fight against money laundering and this is demonstrated by responding affirmatively to the various requests.

“The government made a very serious commitment, not just by rhetoric, but by financial resources, by technological resources and human resources to make sure that we were able not just to achieve the result of getting off this list, but that we have a strong system in place that will take us well into the future,” Senator Farley proffered.

He said the just released Anti-Money Laundering Sectoral Risk Assessments for Attorneys-at-law and Real Estate Agents would prove to be very useful to the practitioners in the fields, especially any new ones. The assessments look at several areas, including vulnerabilities, threats, and inherent characteristics of the two sectors.

Source: BGIS/BT