38 out of 40 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations implemented

The Bahamas compliancy with regard to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations to strengthen the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework is vastly improving.

The Bahamas is now compliant with 38 out of 40 FATF with the Caribbean arm of the AML/CTF regulatory body, which further pointed out that the jurisdiction is now “compliant” with 18 recommendations and “largely compliant” on 20 of them.

The recently released fourth Enhanced Follow Up Report and Technical Compliance Re-Rating credited the Bahamas for progress made in addressing technical compliance deficiencies.

These deficiencies were highlighted in the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) assessment in 2017, which led to a greylisting for The Bahamas that was ultimately removed last year.

Last year, The Bahamas had 30 compliant and largely compliant ratings and ten partially compliant ratings.

Bahamas on par with top FATF member states 

With the improvements in its AML/CFT framework, Bahamas is firmly on par with the top FATF member states including the United States, Switzerland and Ireland.

The CFATF noted that while its report addressed the progress made to improve legislative deficiencies, it did not address the progress Bahamas has made to improve its effectiveness. 

The regulatory body noted that a later follow-up assessment will take place to analyze progress on improving effectiveness, which may result in re-ratings of immediate outcomes at that time. 

According to the Caribbean AML/CFT police, “The Bahamas has been under enhanced monitoring since the adoption of its mutual evaluation report. In line with the CFATF Procedures for the fourth round of mutual AML/CFT evaluations, the country has reported back to the CFATF on the actions it has taken since its mutual evaluation and its third enhanced follow-up report.” 

Consequently, to reflect the progress of The Bahamas, the CFATF has re-rated the country in relation to Recommendations 6, 7, 24 and 33 from partially compliant to largely compliant and Recommendations 19, 22, 26, 27 and 28 from partially compliant to compliant.