Antigua-Barbuda government responds to FATF status

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Antigua-Barbuda government responds to FATF status
Published on Thursday, February 25, 2010 Email To Friend Print Version

ST JOHN'S, Antigua -- The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is the international body that sets the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) global standards, on February 18 2010 issued a public statement identifying countries who currently have regulatory deficiencies and placing them in four categories.


Antigua and Barbuda has been placed in category 4 which are “jurisdictions which have deficiencies for which they have developed an action plan and expressed a high-level political commitment to work with FATF and the regional Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) to address these identified deficiencies”.



According to the Ministry of Legal Affairs, the public statement follows a face-to-face meeting in November 2009 in Argentina between the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) and Antigua and Barbuda represented by the Attorney General, Justin Simon QC and the Chair of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC), Althea Crick.



A follow-up Report was submitted by Antigua and Barbuda in early February 2010 following the recent passage in the House of Representatives of important amendments to various pieces of legislation including The Money Laundering (Prevention) (Amendment) Bill, The Prevention of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, and the International Business Corporations (Amendment) Bill.



These Bills will be debated in the Senate next week.



The arrest of R Allen Stanford in the US on allegations that he operated a massive Ponzi Scheme through his wholly-owned Stanford International Bank, which is registered in and regulated by Antigua and Barbuda, and the request for the extradition of Leroy King the former Administrator of FSRC, has highlighted deficiencies in the country's legal and regulatory framework additional to those previously identified in the CFATF’s 2007 Mutual Evaluation Examiners Report on Antigua and Barbuda.



The Report is conducted in each jurisdiction every third year and assesses compliance with FATF Recommendations and implementation of changing norms and regulatory practices. Stanford International Bank Limited is currently in liquidation.



The Ministry said that Antigua and Barbuda has committed itself to and has been duly implementing the requested amendments and changes to its off-shore financial regime and will be making a full report on its legislative and regulatory actions at the CFATF Plenary in June 2010.



"We are pleased with the progress made to date following the 30th Plenary in Curaçao in October 2009 at which a follow-up Report had been tabled for CFATF’s consideration and review. This is an ongoing process," the Ministry said in a statement.



"While we recognise the vital importance of the offshore financial sector to our economy, we must also pay close attention to our concomitant obligation to maintain the global standards of good governance and AML/CFT requirements. We are therefore working assiduously at correcting these deficiencies by June 2010. We expect our financial institutions (whether local or off-shore) to recognise the changes being made, both regulatory and legislative, and call on them to ensure their diligent and effective compliance as we continuously seek to improve our international standing," the statement concluded.