AML Digest July 2018 AML Digest July 2018 | Page 5

Caribbean AML|CFT Intelligence AML Digest | July/August 2018 What CFATF has to say about the state of Beneficial Ownership The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force has put the spotlight very much on the issue of Beneficial Ownership in the 4th round of Mutual Evaluations which in turn placed great emphasis on effectiveness. Below are extracts from the MERs for Barbados and Trindad and Tobago which help to illuminate the current local issues surrounding the implementation of effective Beneficial Ownership regimes. MER findings help compliance departments to understand the thinking behind the regulations and to posi- tion their departments for full compliance. BARBADOS TRINIDAD & TOBAGO  Beneficial Ownership (BO) information of legal persons is  obtained and available at the company’s registered office or at the office of the service provider. There is no infor- mation that the competent authorities have verified and confirmed the implementation of the maintenance of the BO information by the service providers..  With the exception of the FSC and CBB, the procedures adopted by licensing/registration authorities to vet and approve post licensing/ post registration changes in ben- eficial ownership are generally not sufficiently robust   Registration and licensing authorities should review their licensing/registration procedures to ensure that subse- quent changes in beneficial ownership are adequately recorded, vetted and approved (post or pre)  The competent or supervisory authorities have not  demonstrated the application of sanctions where there is a failure to comply with filing and record keeping require- ments or obligations to keep upto-date information re- garding basic and beneficial ownership Trinidad and Tobago should ensure that FIs and LBs, pri- marily Credit Unions and SIFIs, take immediate steps to identify and verify the beneficial ownership of all ac- counts including legal entities and arrangements that were in place prior to the FOR amendments which re- quired RDD and take corrective action to rectify cases of non-compliance. There is no consistent application by LBs relative to rec- ord-keeping measures which includes beneficial owner- ship information along with ongoing monitoring. The As- sessors were not satisfied that business is refused when CDD information is incomplete. Supervisors should en- sure that LBs maintain effective recordkeeping proce- dures and that transactions are suspended when CDD information is not provided Trinidad and Tobago should ensure that FIs and LBs, pri- marily Credit Unions and SIFIs, take immediate steps to identify and verify the beneficial ownership of legal enti- ties and arrangements that were in place prior to the FOR amendments which required RDD and take corrective action to rectify cases of non-compliance. FREE You can get free issues of this newsletter for the next two issues by sending email to [email protected] to be added to our mailing list. 5