Public Notice FATF PUBLIC STATEMENT & OTHER ADVISORIES
The Turks and Caicos Islands Financial Services Commission (“The Commission”) considers it necessary to issue this public statement as it is desirable for the protection of the public and the reduction of crime and unlawful activities being conducted through the TCI Financial Services Industry. On June 21, 2013 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a “FATF Public Statement” reaffirming its call on its members and other jurisdictions to apply appropriate counter-measures against Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The public statement, which can be assessed through the Commission’s tab on “Sanctions” at http://www.tcifsc.tc/aml-ctf-sanctions/sanctions and is available as a link to the FATF website, was issued as a successor to the FATF Public Statement issued on February 22, 2013. The updated statement also identified jurisdictions with strategic anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) deficiencies that have not made sufficient progress in addressing the deficiencies or have not committed to an action plan developed with the FATF to address the deficiencies. Those jurisdictions are listed as Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Pakistan, São Tomé and Príncipe, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, Vietnam, and Yemen. The Commission wishes to advise the general public, including all regulated and other persons who are required to comply with the requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering and Prevention of Terrorist Financing Regulations, 2010 and the Anti-Money Laundering and Prevention of Terrorist Financing Code 2011, to note the concerns expressed by the FATF with respect to the named jurisdictions and consider the money laundering and/or terrorist financing risks associated with each jurisdiction and apply appropriate or enhanced customer due diligence measures when dealing with customers or transactions involving any of the jurisdictions that have been identified by the June 21, 2013 FATF Public Statement. The FATF has also issued another statement dated June 21, 2013 and entitled, “Improving Global AML/CFT Compliance: On-Going Process”, updating the previous statement of the same name issued on February 22, 2013 in relation to jurisdictions that have committed to working with the FATF to improve their AML/CFT frameworks. These jurisdictions are Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cuba, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Sudan, Tajikistan, and Zimbabwe. The statement further notes that Algeria as well as Antigua and Barbuda have not made sufficient progress in improving their respective AML/CFT regimes, and have not made sufficient progress on the action plan that these countries agreed upon with the FATF. The statement also advised that the following jurisdictions are no longer subject to the FATF’s ongoing global AML/CFT compliance process: Bolivia, Brunei Darussalam, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The Commission wishes to advise the general public, including all regulated and other persons to continue monitoring these period statements issued by the FATF as well as the other sanctions and counter-measures applied by bodies such as the EU, UN, UK and CFATF. Updates of such measures are also periodically made available on the Commission’s Website on the “Sanctions” tab. However, it should be noted that the most current information can be obtained directly from the body issuing the statement or counter-measure.
J. Kevin Higgins Managing Director