CFATF LIII PLENARY OUTCOMES DECEMBER 2021 VIRTUAL PLENARY & WORKING GROUPS MEETING

Photo: Chairman of the CFATF, the Honourable Ryan Pinder, pictured in the third row, photo 5 from the left,
and participants at the LIII Plenary and Working Groups meetings held in virtually during the period November 18th to December 3rd, 2021.


Photo: Participants at the CFATF LIII Plenary and Working Groups meetings held virtually during the period November 18th to December 3rd, 2021.

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, (Virtually) December 2021 – Outgoing CFATF Chairman, the Honourable Ryan Pinder, Attorney General of The Bahamas chaired the CFATF LIII Plenary and Working Groups meetings held virtually during period November 18th - December 3rd, 2021. The Honourable Ryan Pinder presided and passed the baton to the Honourable Cheryl-Ann Lister, Acting Financial Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Bermuda, who will hold the position of CFATF Chairman for the period December 2021 to December 2022. The Deputy Chairmanship was passed to the Cayman Islands represented by the Honourable Samuel Bulgin, Attorney General of the Cayman Islands.

The main issues dealt with by this Plenary were:

1. Mutual Evaluations

Discussion of the Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of St. Kitts and Nevis: The CFATF LIII Plenary discussed the MER of St. Kitts and Nevis which was prepared on the basis of the FATF 4th Round Methodology, and which set out the level of effectiveness of the country’s AML/CFT system and their level of compliance with the FATF Recommendations. Plenary approved the MER following discussions at both the CFATF Working Group on FATF Issues (WGFI) meeting and at Plenary. The completion of the post-Plenary Quality and Consistency (Q&C) process is pending.

2. CFATF International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) Matters (November 24th and 26th, 2021)

Discussion of the Follow-up Reports (FURs) for the mutual evaluations of:

  • The Bahamas 4th FUR for re-ratings.
  • The Republic of Haiti 2nd FUR for information only
  • Jamaica 4th FUR for information only
  • Barbados 3rd FUR for information only
  • Turks and Caicos Islands 2nd FUR for information only
  • Lucia 1st FUR for information only

3. Other Working Group Meetings held virtually:

  • CFATF Working Group on FATF Issues (WGFI) (November 22nd to 23rd, 2021)
  • CFATF Heads of FIU Forum (November 24th, 2021)
  • CFATF Risk Trends and Methods Group (CRTMG) (November 24th, 2021)

4. Other Updates Received

  • The Supervision Project, extended for an additional period of three years (June 2021 – May 2024), continues to provide support to Members, with an additional element of providing desk-based assistance to the CFATF’s Mutual Evaluation (MEVAL) Programme.

  •  The 11th EDF funded two Mutual Evaluations between January and October 2021. The first was the hybrid Mutual Evaluation Mission for St Kitts and Nevis which took place from March 15th to 25th, 2021 and the second was the hybrid Mutual Evaluation Mission for Grenada which occurred from June 14th to 25th June 2021. One virtual Pre-Assessment Training for Suriname was conducted from June 28th to 30th 2021 (237 persons trained).

  • The 11th EDF Project was granted a 14-month ‘No-Cost’ extension to the program’s implementation period.

5. CFATF Governance

  • For the period December 2021 to December 2022 the Chairmanship of the CFATF is held by Bermuda represented by Cheryl-Ann Lister, Acting Financial Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Bermuda. The Deputy Chairmanship is now held by the Cayman Islands represented by the Honourable Samuel Bulgin, Attorney General of the Cayman Islands. The position of Immediate Past Chair is held by The Bahamas, represented bythe Honourable Ryan Pinder, Attorney General of The Bahamas which ensures the tripartite governance of the CFATF.

 

CFATF Secretariat
January 20, 2021