NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Ryan Pinder said yesterday that the government has initiated a national risk assessment project of all segments of the financial services sector.
He said the move will help ensure emerging money laundering (ML), terrorist financing (TF) and proliferation financing (PF) risks are identified.
All sectors of the financial sector are being reviewed — banking and trust businesses, corporate service providers, insurance, gaming, securities, credit unions and money transmission services.
– Attorney General Ryan Pinder
Pinder, who was addressing an ACAMS webinar yesterday, noted that notwithstanding this nation’s delisting from the European Union’s AML Blacklist back in January, there are challenges and emerging risks on the horizon.
“To ensure that we identify emerging ML/TF/PF risks and challenges, we have initiated the 2021/2022 national risk assessment (NRA) project,” said Pinder.
“All sectors of the financial sector are being reviewed — banking and trust businesses, corporate service providers, insurance, gaming, securities, credit unions and money transmission services.
“The NRA 2021/2022 is due to be completed by end of June 2022. The results will inform the review of the National Identified Risk Strategy (NIRFS), which covered the period 2017 to 2020.
“It is intended that the updated NIRFS will cover our maintenance efforts which commenced in 2021 to the period end of 2024.”
Pinder also noted that in December 2021, the country attained a position of 38 Compliant and Largely Compliant Scores for technical compliance with the 40 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.
We are well on our way to addressing the remaining outstanding matters regarding the non-profit and virtual asset service providers sectors.
– Attorney General Ryan Pinder
“We are well on our way to addressing the remaining outstanding matters regarding the non-profit and virtual asset service providers sectors,” he said.
“It is our intent to apply for re-ratings for technical compliance with FATF recommendations regarding these two sectors in 2022 and becoming only the third country worldwide to achieve largely compliant and compliant ratings in all 40 FATF recommendations.”
Pinder also noted that as the movement toward cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, stablecoins, virtual assets and use of the same continues to grow, The Bahamas has seen significant licensees in this space come to the jurisdiction.
“The government sees this as a growth industry,” he said.
“This segment of the financial sector will require special regulatory attention as launderers are also looking to utilizing this e-money for their benefit.
“Challenges will likely arise in the future, but we aim to have the tools required to mitigate the risk of operations in cryptocurrencies as virtual asset service providers are captured under the AML/CFT/CFP legal, regulatory and enforcement regime.”
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