This is according to officials attending a week-long seminar at the Wyndham Nassau Resort.
Central Bank Governor Julian Francis said Monday that hosting the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism seminar puts the country in a favourable position with international financial regulatory bodies.
“It’s very important that we be seen to be around the table and be a part of the process and contributing to the process also explaining our perspective and ensuring that as these standards develop our particular approach to these kinds of issues is incorporated in the standards which will eventually be put in place,” he said.
Mr. Francis said that it is difficult to stay ahead of the game of money laundering.
“The standards are rapidly changing and that is why it is important that we get together regularly with the practitioners to understand exactly where we are,” he said.
He indicated that The Bahamas continues to work to be seen as a jurisdiction committed to the global fight against money laundering.
But identifying money laundering is not as clear-cut as it might seem, according to Gregor Heinrich, a senior representative of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), who is in town for the seminar on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
Mr. Heinrich, chief representative in the Switzerland-based bank’s Office for the Americas, said that there are many conflicts of interest that exist in determining whether money laundering is actually taking place.
“There are the questions of banking secrecy,” he said. “There’s the question of client banking relationships…so it is not easy to bring all the different pieces together.”
The seminar is being co-hosted by the Central Bank of The Bahamas, the BIS and the Centre for Monetary Studies in Latin America (CEMLA).
Mr. Heinrich said that the seminar is a stepping stone in raising awareness and sharing experiences among the various regulatory authorities that are here at this meeting.
He also said that the perception of the activities of jurisdictions like The Bahamas is crucial to international financial regulatory bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the OECD.
He said increased public relations is key.
Mr. Heinrich’s remarks support the position taken by some observers that The Bahamas failed to effectively utilize its diplomats.
Some people believe that such action could have prevented The Bahamas from being placed on international financial blacklists.
Kenneth Coates, director general of CEMLA, said that the challenges of money laundering and the prevention of financing terrorism are heightened in smaller jurisdiction such as The Bahamas.
Mr. Coates said that there are two factors that financial centres have to take into account.
One is that every citizen has a right to secrecy and anonymity in his or her banking transactions, but at the same time there is a call for more supervision and ultimately less secrecy.
Mr. Coates said that sometimes it is difficult to balance these two factors.
“That’s where the smaller jurisdictions run into a lot of pressure from international organizations,” he said.
The seminar will focus on such matters as practical compliance issues, the U.S. response against terrorist financing and national jurisdictions on international transactions.
The Bahama Journal
