BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados could soon be removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of Jurisdictions Under Enhanced Monitoring (JUEM) if it passes an On-site visit early next year.
The country has been on the FATF’s JUEM list since 2020 when it “made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and CFATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime,” the FATF website said.
In a FATF Plenary on Friday, it was agreed that the country had completed its Action Plan and qualified for an On-Site visit early next year.
A statement from the government of Barbados said that Barbados’ removal from the list of countries under Jurisdiction monitoring would signify “that the country has made substantial progress in strengthening the effectiveness of its regime to combat Money Laundering, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
Attorney General Dale Marshall has described the process as a journey.
“A trigger in this entire process was financial sector assets reaching the amount of 5 billion US dollars. We have always been uncomfortable with this criterion since it does not consider such things as risks, and that casts doubt about its suitability in determining a country’s impact on the global financial system, ” The attorney General said.
He defended the need for an on-site visit by FATF assessors, saying that “since adopting the Action Plan, [Barbados] has put a large and varied body of measures in place to address the recommendations from its 4th Round Mutual Evaluation Report.
“Some of these measures were statutory, and others had to do with improving our regulatory and law enforcement frameworks, Marshall said, adding that “we have addressed all of the areas in the Action Plan, and the FATF now needs to be satisfied that the measures are tangible and sustainable.”
The government statement said that being on the FATF Enhanced Monitoring list had caused the country also to be placed on the European Union AML Blacklist, “and both have had a deleterious effect on doing business in, and from Barbados.”
During next year’s on-site visit, the FATF assessors will engage with all of the regulatory agencies, law enforcement, the judiciary, government officials, and the private sector to confirm the effectiveness and sustainability of the measures that have been implemented.
The assessors will then submit a formal report to the FATF at its February 2024 Plenary meeting, during which Barbados will officially be told whether it will be delisted.
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