AG hopeful of EU blacklist removal following productive meetings

Attorney General Carl Bethel said yesterday the government has done everything in its power to be removed from the European Union’s anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) blacklist.

This jurisdiction was added to the list of countries considered to have strategic AML/CFT deficiencies in October because it hadn’t completed a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) onsite assessment.

Even though The Bahamas was removed from the FATF gray list in December, it remains on the EU blacklist.

“Yes we were placed on it because we were on the FATF grey list, but we have left the FATF grey list. The same thing has happened to Trinidad. Trinidad left the FATF grey list but was maintained on the EU grey list as well,” Bethel said in the Senate yesterday while debating the 2021/2022 budget.

Since that time we have had a very, very productive response and we hope fruitful interaction with the directorate general for FISMA (Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union), which is a new directorate of the European Commission. We have conducted more than 12 Zoom calls speaking with ministers. I could not have done it without the very able assistance of Maria O ‘Brien, the ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium.”

Bethel continued, “I can tell you with her able assistance we have had 12 calls where your Bahamas attorney general spoke face to face with ministers of finance and attorneys general and/or heads of their FIUs, but in most cases it was a ministerial response from countries such as Germany, Italy, Hungary, Spain, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Belgium, Malta and the Netherlands. Face to face, ministerial contact over Zoom and all of them expressed their support and/or appreciation for the efforts being made by The Bahamas. So we will see where things go, but we are doing everything in our power to ensure that The Bahamas will get off that list.”

The Minnis administration has concentrated its legislative agenda to become compliant with international financial regulators and The Bahamas remains compliant with the majority of FATF requirements. Still, Bethel said this jurisdiction must stand prepared for the ever-changing challenges that may confront the financial services sector.

“We have to embrace change. We have to embrace new disciplines. If we embrace them early and master them we can continue and we can succeed. Challenges to our financial sector are not going anywhere. They are coming and multiplying, we see on the horizon the whole question of a global, unified minimum tax. That will have implications more so for other countries in the Caribbean region than The Bahamas, just because of the nature of the type of services that we provide,” Bethel said.

“But the reality is change is going to be forced upon us, and it is far better for The Bahamas to be sitting at the table as it is now.”

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