GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands – The Cayman Islands can be removed from the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ‘grey list’ as early as October, should they satisfy the criteria of an on-site visit tentatively scheduled for late August, early September.
The Cayman Islands was placed on the FATF’s grey list in 2021, after it was deemed that the country’s regulatory bodies didn’t have fines and other penalties for financial crimes.
FATF then challenged the Cayman Islands to improve “in the area of sanctions on financial institutions for AML (Anti-Money laundering) breaches” and called on regulators to “show that they penalize those who do not provide accurate up-to-date beneficial ownership information”.
Friday’s meeting of the global financial regulatory body, agreed that the Cayman Islands “have substantially completed its action plan and warrants an on-site assessment to verify that the implementation of the AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained, and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation in the future,” said a statement from the FATF website.
“The Cayman Islands has made the following key reforms, including…applying sanctions that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and taking administrative penalties and enforcement actions against obliged entities to ensure that breaches are remediated effectively and in a timely manner”, the FATF website said, adding that the country also imposed “adequate and effective sanctions in cases where relevant parties (including legal persons) do not file accurate, adequate and up to date beneficial ownership information.”
The Cayman Islands administration is said to have also demonstrated “that they are prosecuting all types of money laundering in line with the jurisdiction’s risk profile and that such prosecutions are resulting in the application of dissuasive, effective, and proportionate sanctions”.
Financial Services Minister André Ebanks, who led the Cayman Islands delegation at the Paris meeting said, “Satisfying all of the 63 recommended actions is a major step towards the Cayman Islands being delisted”, adding that “as is the case for other listed countries that met this milestone, there is one more step to complete, and all relevant stakeholders need to remain focused.”
Upon the completion of the visit later this year, a report will be presented at the next FATF plenary meeting, scheduled for October, at which the final decision for the delisting of the Cayman Islands will be made.
Attorney General Sam Bulgin said the island is preparing for the visit which he describes as being “rigorous” adding that the purpose “is to ensure that local authorities can effectively deter, detect, investigate and prosecute serious crimes.”
Cayman Finance CEO Steve McIntosh, though acknowledging that there was still work to be done, said he welcomed the FATF announcement, and congratulated all who “contributed to reaching this milestone on the road to delisting”.
Cayman Finance Board Chairperson Conor O’Dea said the announcement was testament to the perseverance of both the government and the private sector.
