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(CNS): The Cayman Islands remains on the Financial Action Task Force grey list while Nicaragua and Pakistan were removed following this week’s meeting in Paris to review the political commitment made by countries to meet the requirements needed to combat global financial crime. In a statement issued Friday, the FATF said that Cayman, which has just one issue to address to be delisted, still had work to do.
“The Cayman Islands should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies, including by demonstrating that they are prosecuting all types of money laundering cases in line with the jurisdiction’s risk profile and that such prosecutions are resulting in the application of dissuasive, effective, and proportionate sanctions,” the FATF said.
In a press release from his financial services ministry, André Ebanks, who was in Paris this week for the meeting, said that Cayman had satisfied 62 of 63 recommended actions in relation to improving its anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.
“The commitment and diligence of both our public and private sectors is earning us a stronger reputation as a global partner that stands firm in fighting financial crime,” said Ebanks. “There is a solid mass of evidence that proves our ongoing commitment to implementing global standards effectively, from our improved policy and legislative framework, to new and enhanced compliance IT systems, to increasing the number of professionals in the public sector who monitor and oversee those compliance systems.”
He said it was becoming clearer globally that the Cayman Islands has a legacy image challenge rather than issues of standards and effectiveness.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the dedication and cooperation from both sectors. I therefore thought it was important to attend the FATF plenary in person, to convey key data points which demonstrate that the Cayman Islands is not the same as depicted from decades ago. It was an honour and privilege to do so,” he added.
While the FATF did find during this plenary that the islands have imposed adequate and effective sanctions in cases where relevant parties do not file accurate, adequate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information, the last issue around the prosecution of money laundering remains and the task force has given the jurisdiction until February next year to deal with that problem.
In the meantime, Cayman remains on the FATF watchlist and also on the European list as the two are linked. When the FATF listed the Cayman Islands in February 2021, as an automatic consequence the EU added the Cayman Islands to its list of jurisdictions with AML/CFT deficiencies in February 2022. However, once the FATF removes the Cayman Islands from its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, the EU will initiate its steps to also delist the Cayman Islands.
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