By Kurt Campbell
www.inewsguyana.com] – The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) in its most recent public statement announced that Guyana been referred to its parent body – the Financial Action Task force (FATF).
According to CFATF, FATF has accepted its referral.
According to reports, FATF will now carry out a targeted review of Guyana on which it will report at a meeting scheduled for October this year.
In an invited comment, President Donald Ramotar warned that while the body has not made much mention of Guyana, the country is still “not out the woods.”
He could not say what form the expected review will take even as he reminded that several measures are in place to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism in Guyana.
The Guyanese Head of State posited that Guyana’s deficiencies, which surround legislative reform, were not too severe to significantly affect the international financial system.
As a result of not meeting the agreed timelines in its Action Plan, CFATF recognizes Guyana as a jurisdiction with significant AML/CFT deficiencies. In this regard CFATF considers Guyana to be a risk to the international financial system.
Members are therefore called upon to implement further counter measures to protect their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from Guyana.
Countermeasures could entail, among others, the requirement of enhanced due diligence measures; introducing enhanced reporting mechanisms or systematic reporting of financial transactions; refusing the establishment of subsidiaries or branches or representative offices in the country concerned, or otherwise taking into account the fact that the relevant financial institution is from a country that does not have adequate AML/CFT systems and limiting the business relationships or financial transactions with the identified country or persons in that country.
