Spotlight on money laundering and terrorist financing

June 9, 2017•4 Minutes
RTC Director RTC Director

THE TURKS and Caicos Islands is gearing up to complete its first money laundering and terrorist financing National Risk Assessment this June.

About 50 stakeholders and representatives from both the public and private sectors are expected to convene for a two-day workshop at the Blue Haven Resort in Providenciales.
The workshop is aimed at putting together comprehensive action plans to decrease the levels of risks and strengthen controls and supervisory oversight in each sector.
“This is a major initiative here in the Turks and Caicos Islands which will enable us to develop an effective framework to prevent money laundering and combat terrorist financing,” said the Hon Attorney General Rhondalee Braithwaite Knowles OBE, chair of the national Anti-Money Laundering Committee, in announcing the launch of the National Risk Assessment.

World Bank experts Emily Ade-leke and Roberto Biel will lead the various workshop sessions, which will take place on June 26 and 27, with a closed half day workshop for policy makers on June 28.
The initial phase began in October 2014, with a workshop which identified the approach to gathering supporting data.
Understanding the money laundering and terrorist financing risks is crucial to developing and implementing national anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.
This month’s workshop is being run in line with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) recommendations, where each country assesses its own money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
With increasing globalisation and liberalisation, money laundering and terrorist financing have become a global phenomenon.

They pose real and significant threats to nations, their people, their financial systems and their security apparatus – no matter the makeup of the economy or the size of the country.
All nations, particularly small and developing jurisdictions are susceptible to disruption from criminal and terrorist activities.
Corruption, money laundering and its associated economic and financial crimes tend to impact and undermine good governance and rule of law, which are core values of regional constitutions.

A risk assessment allows countries to identify, assess and understand its money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
Once these risks are properly understood, countries can apply AML/CFT measures that correspond to the level of risk.

The risk-based approach, which is central to the FATF recommendations, enables countries to prioritise their resources and allocate them efficiently.
The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) has blacklisted countries such as Guyana for failing to approve legislation to combat money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.

The CFATF pursues the objective of achieving effective compliance with and implementation of the FATF standards to prevent and control money laundering and to combat the financing of terrorism.
In that regard, the Anti-Money Laundering Committee in conjunction with the CFATF are preparing the national framework for the upcoming fourth mutual evaluation of the AML/CFT system of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The FATF 40 recommendations are widely accepted as one of the most useful international countermeasures designed against money laundering and terrorist financing: their implementation increase transparency and enable countries to successfully take action against illicit use of their financial system.

Countries have diverse legal, administrative and operational frameworks and different financial systems, and so cannot all take identical measures to counter these threats.
The FATF recommendations, therefore, set an international standard, which countries should implement through measures adapted to their particular circumstances.