The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force is taking place this week in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The Anguilla delegation is led by the Attorney General, Hon. John McKendrick QC, who is attending with Ms Erica Edwards, crown counsel, and Ms Ojeda Vanterpool, representing the Anguilla Financial Services Commission.
CFATF meets every two years at plenary sessions. The purpose of the plenary meetings is to carry out a mutual evaluation process of the compliance by each member country or territory with the worldwide FATF 40 recommendations which seek to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The members of the Anguilla delegation are all trained FATF assessors and Ms Edwards played a significant role in reporting on the Antigua and Barbuda mutual evaluation.
The CFATF plenary is an important meeting of most regional Attorneys General, Financial Services Commissions, Financial Intelligence Units and others. The Attorney General has had a series of bilateral meetings with his regional counterparts to promote a number of developments with the Anguilla financial services industry, including the Anguilla Utility Token Act.
The FATF 40 recommendations protect against money laundering and terrorist financing and play a major role in reducing both white collar and gang related crime in the Caribbean. Anguilla’s membership of the FATF is important to the stability and integrity of its financial services and banking sectors as well as contributing to protect Anguilla from organised crime.
The Attorney General said:
“Whilst it is expensive for a small jurisdiction like Anguilla to send delegates twice a year to the CFATF plenary, the work undertaken at these plenary meetings is essential to Anguilla’s place in the international financial system. Non-compliance with the recommendations would significantly damage the financial services and banking sectors and impact upon all forms of private enterprise which require modern banking facilities. Non-compliance with the standards would also impact significantly on employment opportunities across various sectors in Anguilla. The work is complex, intense but important and I very much appreciate the close collaboration my Chambers enjoys with the FSC led by Mr Halischuk and the FIU and the wider financial services industry.”
