The Caribbean Catch-Up column features articles on anti-financial crime and compliance with a regional focus on the Caribbean from subject-matter experts.
Our regular contributor is Tanya McCartney, CEO and Executive Director at the Bahamas Financial Services Board. If you would like to contribute to this column or have any topics you would like to suggest, email editor@acams.org.
The financial system can be used by criminal organizations (including terrorist organizations) to launder their criminal proceeds. Accordingly, the financial system becomes the mechanism (directly or indirectly) for moving funds to criminal organizations. Thus, monitoring the flow of funds in the financial system becomes a...
The financial technology (fintech) industry is growing exponentially throughout the world as it assists consumers in saving and transacting in an aggressively evolving digital world. Recent discussions on fintech have become extremely popular due to the potential impact it has on the entire financial system....
Investment fraud can plague financial markets regardless of their level of development. It encompasses all types of actions to obtain financial gain from investors based on deception. Such fraud can take many different forms, from very simple schemes (such as outright theft) to more complex...
Jamaica’s anti-corruption oversight body tabled its annual report in Parliament on July 6, 20211 but still managed to make several recommendations2 for bolstering its existing legislative framework.3 These included requiring members of Parliament and government officials who are required to declare financial assets as part...
In December 2017, the Cayman Islands went through its Fourth Round Mutual Evaluation, a report that analyzed the level of compliance with international standards on combatting money laundering as well as the financing of terrorism and proliferation. The evaluation was conducted by the Caribbean Financial...
PwC published the first edition of its “PwC CBDC global index,”1 in which it analyzes the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as countries around the world race to develop their own digital currency for retail and interbank CBDC. This report ranked the Bahamas...
Since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived on Caribbean shores over 18 months ago, credit unions in the region have been forced to embrace the “new normal.” Credit unions have adapted to continue providing financial services to their members and upholding regulatory requirements.1 These adjustments include collecting...
On December 18, 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced that the Bahamas was delisted from its grey list of “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring.”1 This decision came after a final review and the recommendations from the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) of the...
On January 22 and 23, 2020, the Central Bank of the Bahamas hosted an inaugural global research conference focusing on empirical approaches to anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime prevention. This conference’s creation was supported by the Caribbean Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank...
De-risking is defined by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as “the phenomenon of financial institutions terminating or restricting business relationships with clients or categories of clients to avoid, rather than manage risk.”1 This risk pertains directly to the potential for money laundering (ML), terrorist...
