TT must make decision on anti-terrorism law amendments by September

This country must put in place more aggressive legislation aimed at combating the financing of terrorist organisations by September or face some penalty by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

This is according to Susan Francois, Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Ministry of Finance who spoke during a Joint Select Committee at Parliament this morning.

Francois said that the Task Force which is a Paris-based organisation was responsible for setting standards for the prevention of money-laundering and terrorist financing and said a review of TT's anti-terrorist legislation in 2015 revealed that current legislation was not sufficiently robust to tackle these issues.

She added both government and opposition must reach some agreement on proposed amendments to the anti-terrorism bill by September before the Task Force convenes or face some financial sanctioning, which may include TT's blacklisting and result in increased difficulties in international trade.