FATF presses Guyana to implement ALM/CFT Act

Last Updated on Tuesday, 27 October 2015, 15:38 by GxMedia

Guyana is being urged by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to get its house in order as it relates to the implementation of the amendments of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) law passed in Parliament in June.

This comes after FATF held its plenary meeting in France from October 21 – 23 at which Guyana was represented by Attorney General Basil Williams.

The release on FATF’s website noted that, Guyana made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and CFATF to address its strategic AML/CFT deficiencies in October 2014.

“Since June 2015, Guyana has taken steps toward improving its AML/CFT regime, including by enacting the AML/CFT Amendment Act 2015. However, the FATF has determined that certain strategic deficiencies remain.”

It said that Guyana should continue to implement its action plan, including by: ensuring and implementing an adequate legal framework for identifying, tracing and freezing terrorist assets and ensuring a fully operational and effectively functioning financial intelligence unit.

FATF says  that establishing effective measures for customer due diligence and enhancing financial transparency; and implementing an adequate supervisory framework are also important for Guyana.