The Bahamas must strengthen the regime it has in place for regulation of its vital financial services sector and not become complacent now that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has discontinued its monitoring of the country, according to Attorney General and Minister of Education Alfred Sears.
Minister Sears reported Friday that after five years of monitoring this country the FATF announced at its plenary meeting in Paris, France earlier in the day that it would remove The Bahamas from the list of countries which it would continue to monitor.
“The Government of The Bahamas will maintain the vigilant position that we have and will not relax in any respect the pace of regulatory cooperation,” Minister Sears assured.
“This will require that we constantly review our process and that we improve and increase our capacity. It also means that we will have to actively engage the international community-because we are talking about an evolving standard of international cooperation. This requires that we participate and through our participation influence these evolving standards so that we have an ownership of the global norms.”
In June of 2000, the FATF listed The Bahamas among 14 other offshore financial centres which it identified as Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories.
The country subsequently implemented a series of legislative and institutional measures to improve the regulatory regime and was removed from that list in 2001, however, the FATF continued to monitor the jurisdiction until this month.
Speaking at a press conference also attended by Financial Services and Investments Minister Allyson Maynard-Gibson, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, and representatives from various public and private sector regulators in the conference room of the Office of the Attorney General, Minister Sears noted that The Bahamas’ removal from the list of countries that will continue to be monitored is without qualification.
“That means that within the eyes of this body (the FATF) The Bahamas has a satisfactory process for both judicial and regulatory cooperation,” Minister Sears said.
Describing the FATF’s decision to discontinue monitoring of The Bahamas as “extremely important”, Minister Maynard-Gibson said the development is expected to produce significant benefits for the country in general and the financial services sector in particular.
She also expressed approval of the way in which the present administration dealt with the blacklisting experience.
“The prime minister, while leader of the opposition, and also since as prime minister has been very resolute in his point of view that the incidents of 2000 and subsequently ought to have been handled in a different way,” Minister Maynard-Gibson said.
“This administration has handled those matters in a different way and today we see the result thereof and The Bahamas remains a sovereign nation with its dignity intact.”
Minister Mitchell, meanwhile, commended the efforts of local authorities and Bahamian diplomats posted overseas for the work they did in helping to secure The Bahamas’ removal from the list of monitored countries.
He was critical, however, of the process by which The Bahamas initially came to be blacklisted, stating, “As Foreign Minister I have spoken to the United Nations about three or four times about these un-elected bodies that have been imposing these un-funded mandates on The Bahamas and I think it has been most unfair, but that’s life.”
Echoing Minister Mitchell’s sentiments, Minister Sears also supported the call for a more representative body, which would operate under the auspices of the United Nations to deal with issues related to money laundering.
He noted that presently the FATF comprises only 33 member states.
Also praising The Bahamas’ removal from the list of FATF-monitored countries, Wendy Warren, CEO and executive director of the Bahamas Financial Services Board, said the development would assist the country as it continues to promote itself as a jurisdiction known for providing high quality international financial services.
“Certainly from the private sector’s perspective when we look at being a competitive international financial centre we look at the need to be relevant for clients, but also the need to be integrated with or connected to the international financial systems and the FATF is a body that oversees and has an influence on the degree to which The Bahamas can connect or integrate into the global financial systems,” Ms. Warren said.
“We would like to commend the efforts of the government and the regulatory bodies in securing the recognition of The Bahamas’ compliance with international requirements. We would also support all efforts to ensure that The Bahamas continues to maintain its status as an international financial centre.”
By: Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
