AG: TT not grey-listed by FATF

Attorney General Faris Al Rawi yesterday denied claims made by the Bankers’ Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BATT), that the country is one of the nine countries which has been “grey-listed” by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – a worldwide agency which monitors the extent to which a nation is plagued by money laundering and funding of terrorism.

In a press briefing hosted by the AG yesterday, at the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs building in Port of Spain, reporters were told that TT was in fact in the fourth round of FATF evaluations and was well on its way to completing the evaluation with a high rating. “There is no concept of grey-listing in the fourth round of FATF evaluation. Being in enhanced follow-up is not grey-listing because grey-listing applies to the third round of mutual evaluation not the fourth round.” Al Rawi said.

Al Rawi said in January 2015, several issues from the third round of mutual evaluation mandated by FATF had not been addressed and were merged into the fourth round.

This led to the TT qualifying for two anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing risk assessment processes. TT would have been monitored by the Caribbean chapter of the FATF and were also looked at by the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG), which the AG alerted the nation to in 2015 and 2016.