Public Notice FATF PUBLIC STATEMENTS, CFATF 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 February 14, 2014 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 October 18, 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 Algeria, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, 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 February 14, 2014 FATF Public Statement. The FATF has also issued another statement dated February 14, 2014 and entitled, “Improving Global AML/CFT Compliance: On-Going Process”, updating the previous statement of the same name issued on October 18, 2013 in relation to jurisdictions that have committed to working with the FATF to improve their AML/CFT frameworks. These jurisdictions are Albania, Angola, Argentina, Cuba, Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The statement further notes that Afghanistan and Cambodia has not made sufficient progress in improving it AML/CFT regime, and have not made sufficient progress on the action plan that this country agreed upon with the FATF. If these jurisdictions do not take sufficient action to implement significant components of their action plan by June 2014, then the FATF has stated that it will identify these jurisdictions as being out of compliance with their agreed action plan and will take further measures. The statement also advised that the following jurisdictions are no longer subject to the FATF’s ongoing global AML/CFT compliance process: Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh and Vietnam. The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) issued a “CFATF Public Statement” dated November 20, 2013 as a successor to the CFATF Public Statement issued May, 2013. This Public Statement identifies Belize and Guyana as having significant strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regime and having not made sufficient progress in addressing the deficiencies or has not complied with their Action Plan developed with the CFATF to address these deficiencies. The statement calls upon its members to consider implementing countermeasures to protect their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from these jurisdictions. The “CFATF Public Statement” also identifies Dominica a jurisdiction with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies that has made significant progress in addressing these deficiencies. Therefore, the CFATF noted that Dominica and the CFATF should continue to work together to ensure that Dominica’s reform process is completed. 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