The 59th Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) Plenary and Working Group Meetings were conducted during the period December 1st to 6th 2024, in Montego Bay, Jamaica hosted by the Central Bank of Jamaica. These meetings were attended by the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Senator the Honourable Reginald T. A. Armour, S.C., the CFATF Secretariat led by Executive Director, Ms. Dawne Spicer and several Attorney Generals and Government Ministers from numerous CFATF members including Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, the Cayman Islands, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands.
The Honourable Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs were supported by senior technical officials of the Anti-Terrorism Unit, the Legislative Drafting Department, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago and the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.
The CFATF Member countries officially welcomed its newest member, the United States of America. The Plenary meeting provides a forum via which key operational issues affecting the 25 members and international organisations are discussed under the global AML/CFT/CPF standards on how effectively they achieve results in preventing illicit finance and safeguarding the global financial system. The CFATF Plenary were also attended by FATF members via the Cooperating and Supporting Nations (COSUNs – Canada, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom and the Netherlands). Trinidad and Tobago’s participation was imperative as authorities are preparing for the 5th Round of Mutual Evaluation assessment process given the FATF’s increasing focus on the effectiveness of a country in managing money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risks.
The 59th Plenary and Working Group Meetings, amongst other things, served to demonstrate the Caribbean region’s continued implementation of effective AML/CFT/CPF measures, produced key discussions on material changes being considered to the International Standards, technical discussions on the Mutual Evaluation Report of Belize and Montserrat. Trinidad and Tobago also participated in key discussions for the establishment of a Regional Counter Financing of Terrorism Forum for continued efforts to improve understanding of terrorist financing risks in an effort to prevent terrorist financiers from exploiting the global financial system in line with ongoing work by the FATF.
The fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is also the fight to protect the safety and prosperity of our citizens and communities, and the integrity of the financial system. The Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs together with key competent authorities of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Committee (NAMLC) continues to pursue AML/CFT reforms in advance of the CFATF mutual evaluation. The CFATF Assessment Team are expected to conduct an onsite evaluation of the country’s AML/CFT regime in early 2026.