The global Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has threatened to call “on its members and urging all jurisdictions to apply enhanced due diligence to business relations and transactions with Jamaica”.
In a statement on it’s website, the global financial regulatory body expressed concern as the Caribbean nation “failed to complete its action plan, which fully expired in January 2022”.
“The FATF strongly urges Jamaica to swiftly demonstrate significant progress in completing its action plan by October 2023 or the FATF will consider next steps,” the statement said.
The statement acknowledged that following its 2020 “high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and CFATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime”, Jamaica had taken steps toward improvement “by ensuring that its definition of beneficial ownership is in line with the FATF Standards”.
However the FATF is calling on the country to work on “implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies” specifically by “ensuring adequate, risk-based supervision in all DNFBP sectors; and demonstrating that accurate and up-to-date basic and beneficial ownership information is available on a timely basis to competent authorities, and effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions are applied”.
The FATF has also warned Barbados that “will consider next steps if there is insufficient progress” on its action plan which expired in April 2022.
“The FATF strongly urges Barbados to swiftly demonstrate significant progress in completing its action plan by October 2023.”
They commended Barbados for taking steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, “by demonstrating that accurate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information is available on a timely basis, and by pursuing repatriation and sharing of confiscated assets with other countries”.
However they admonished the country’s administration to “work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies by demonstrating that the levels of suspicious activity reporting by certain reporting entities are in line with risks”.
