News Americas, FREEPORT, Bahamas, Fri. Nov. 22, 2013: Guyana and Belize have both been cited by The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) for deficiencies in meeting the international standards of fighting money laundering and terrorism.
CTAFT is an organization of twenty-nine jurisdictions of the Caribbean Basin Region, which have agreed to implement the international standards for Anti-money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), Financial Action Task Force Recommendations (FATF Recommendations) in order to protect the international financial system from money laundering and financing of terrorism (ML/FT) risks and to encourage greater compliance with the AML/CFT standards.
The CFATF said Belize must therefore implement all outstanding issues including addressing its customer due diligence requirements and prohibiting dealings with shell banks.
Guyana is being urged to address the strategic deficiencies that exist in its national architecture to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
The organization says Guyana must take steps to ensure that it fully criminalizes money laundering and terrorist financing offences and strengthens the requirements for suspicious transaction reporting, international co-operation, and the freezing and confiscation of terrorist assets.
“Members are therefore called upon to consider implementing counter measures to protect their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from Guyana,” the CATF said, while urging both countries to consider implementing counter measures to protect their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
