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THE FATF: Lower on the horizon but still relevant
The Cayman Islands Government and Monetary Authority updated the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force on the improvements made to its anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing regime.
During the last CFATF Plenary, held in May 2009 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the Cayman Islands reported on improvements in its compliance with the recommendations made by the organisation.
The FATF has in total released 40 recommendations to combat money laundering and nine special recommendations to combat the financing of terrorism.
In a 2007 assessment the CFATF found the Cayman Islands compliant with 14 recommendations, largely compliant with 24 recommendations and partially compliant with ten of the so-called ‘40+9 Recommendations’. Overall this compared favourably with evaluation reports of other jurisdictions.
Since the report was accepted by the CFATF Plenary in December 2008, the Cayman Islands Government and CIMA have been working to improve compliance with those 35 recommendations on which Cayman was not rated fully compliant.
The Cayman Islands representatives Cheryll Richards, solicitor general, and Gail Johnson-Goring, CIMA legal counsel, presented a paper in response to the CFATF’s Report on the jurisdiction.
The presentation outlined that Cayman has completed action on 28 of the 35 recommendations that required a follow up.
The Cayman delegation informed the CFATF Plenary that the remaining seven recommendations are expected to be targeted before the next Plenary in October 2009.