Enactment against money laundering and financing of terrorism not ready yet

May 10, 2011 6:20 AM

ORANJESTAD — The tightened up enactment and rules for the financial sector against money laundering and financing of terrorism is not ready yet.

This means Aruba is still not complying with international standards, thus increasing the risk of our country being included on the black list.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had rapped Aruba over the knuckles earlier for lagging behind in combating and prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing. Last year, the current government promised to mend their ways promptly regarding the financial watchdog in order to prevent Aruba from being added to the black list, after previous governments had taken insufficient action. It was agreed that Aruba would report the achieved progress in June of this year on the so-called MER-recommendations from FATF. In any case, this means the implementation of the relevant National Regulation Prevention and Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing.

From the report of May 5th in which the responsible ministers answered questions from the AVP and MEP parties, it appears that this law has been forwarded to the States in the meantime. On February 9th, the enactment was returned to the government along with the advice from the Advisory Council and the government subsequently presented it to the parliament on March 17th. During that intervening period, the enactment required readjustments due to new developments. However, from the reply, it appears that an implementation regulation is lacking as well. Therefore, both parties want to know from the government when that regulation would be submitted to the parliament. In reply, the government states the Implementation Regulation is currently with the Advisory Council and hopes to present the latter to the parliament as soon as possible. This regulation namely regulates the transition when the new law on money laundering and terrorism financing is implemented.

Black list

In any case, the next meeting of FATF is scheduled for June 20th when Aruba is to report on their progresses. The consequences could be considerable if the legislation is not implemented on time, the government states once again in their reply to the parties. In that case, Aruba could fall under the supervision of the so-called ICRG. This work group of FATF monitors countries, which do not comply or comply insufficiently with the recommendations from the financial watchdog. A list of these countries as well as a judgment is announced after each FAFT-meeting. The international financial community follows this list closely and this could ‘have a disadvantageous affect on the reputation or position of a country’, as the Aruban government also acknowledges.

(Source: Newspaper Amigoe)

10 May 2011