BELIZE-Belize is recognized for its efforts in dealing with money laundering and terrorism.

BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) has highlighted the country’s significant achievements in combatting money laundering (AML), financing of terrorism (CFT), and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (CPF).

The CFATF has published Belize’s 4th Round Mutual Evaluation Report (MER), conducted under the standards and procedures of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that evaluates countries in two critical areas.

These are technical compliance, measured against the FATF’s 40 recommendations, which assesses the adequacy and robustness of a country’s laws and other enforceable AML/CFT/CPF mechanisms, and effectiveness, measured against the FATF’s 11 immediate outcomes, which assess how effectively a country is using its AML/CFT/CPF legal and enforcement framework.

According to the report, Belize’s MER results position the country among the world’s top performers.

Regarding Technical Compliance, the report found that Belize was rated fully compliant in 38 of the 40 FATF recommendations and largely compliant in the remaining two.

“This makes Belize the second country globally to achieve Compliant or Largely Compliant ratings across all 40 Recommendations on the country’s first attempt, setting a new global benchmark for technical compliance.

“Belize now has the distinction of having the strongest technical compliance ratings in the world, surpassing the previous record holder Qatar, which has 32 Compliant and 8 Largely Compliant ratings,” according to a statement issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

Regarding Effectiveness, Belize achieved substantial effectiveness in five of the 11 Immediate Outcomes, Moderate in five, and Low in one.

“Amongst the 22 Caribbean countries assessed so far, these results are the third highest and include a regional first: Substantial rating in Immediate Outcome 11 on proliferation financing,” the FIU said, adding that Belize’s success reflects a rigorous evaluation process spanning nearly two years.

“The final report was reviewed and approved by the FATF Global Community, comprising over 200 countries and the FATF Secretariat, culminating in today’s publication,” the FIU said, adding that “these outstanding technical compliance and effectiveness ratings places Belize in Regular Follow-up, a status achieved by less than 15 percent of countries in the world.

“Significantly, based on these results, Belize does not qualify for the FATF’s “grey list” or “blocklist,” the FIU said, noting that these achievements mark a dramatic turnaround since Belize’s 3rd Round mutual evaluation in 2011 when the country was publicly grey-listed by the CFATF and suffered the loss of 87 percent of its correspondent banking relationships.

“ Belize’s progress underscores years of dedicated effort and collaboration across public and private sectors,” the FIU said, extending its gratitude to all stakeholders for their contributions to this national effort.

“As the country celebrates this milestone, it remains steadfast in its commitment to strengthening its AML/CFT/CPF framework to adapt to evolving international standards and emerging risks,” the FIU added.