Guyana to be told to implement anti-laundering reforms by May 2014 – AG
Posted By StabroekNews – November 21, 2013 .
Attorney General Anil Nandlall today said that following a meeting in The Bahamas of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) a formal letter will be sent to Guyana pointing to identified deficiencies in its anti-money laundering legislation and giving it up to May 2014 to implement the necessary reforms failing which it will be referred to the international financial task force.
In a statement he also said that the communiqué likely to be issued at the end of the today’s meeting will likely include a statement that “Members (of CFATF) 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.”
This would appear to fall short of the dire blacklisting that the government has been warning the country of over the failure by the opposition to support the reforms sought by the CFATF to the bill in the National Assembly.
The AG’s statement follows:
Statement by the Honourable Attorney General andM Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall MP.
At the XXXVIII Plenary Meeting of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), held from November 20-21, 2013, in Freeport, Bahamas, it was resolved and decided that a Public Statement will be issued in respect of Guyana, identifying Guyana as a jurisdiction with “strategic AML/CFT deficiencies that have not made sufficient progress in addressing the deficiencies or have not complied with its Action Plan developed with CFATF to address these deficiencies”. The Statement will be officially issued upon the conclusion of the Plenary Meeting on November 21, 2013.
In November 2011 the CFATF brought to the attention of its Members certain jurisdictions including Guyana with significant strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regime. With a view to encouraging expeditious rectification of the identified strategic deficiencies, Guyana and the CFATF developed an Action Plan with identified target dates to address the strategic deficiencies that exist in Guyana’s national architecture to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
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.
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