21/02/23

CAYMAN ISLANDS: FATF to decide whether to remove jurisdiction from grey list this week.

As published on cayman.loopnews.com, Monday 20 February, 2023.

The second Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Plenary under the two-year Singapore Presidency of T Raja Kumar will take place from 22-24 February and will conclude FATF Week, from 20-24 February.

Delegates representing 206 members of the Global Network and observer organisations, including the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Bank, INTERPOL and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, will participate in the Working Group and Plenary meetings in Paris during FATF Week.

Delegates will discuss key issues, including changes to the standards to strengthen the beneficial ownership requirements for trusts and legal arrangements. The Plenary will also finalise guidance on improving beneficial ownership transparency to prevent shell companies and other opaque structures from being used to launder illicit funds.

Delegates will also discuss the assessments of measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in observer member Indonesia and GCC member Qatar, as well as the progress made by some jurisdictions identified as presenting a risk to the financial system.

A summary of the Plenary’s decisions will be published on the FATF website following the conclusion of the meeting.

Cayman stakeholders are hopeful that one of these decisions will be the removal of the Cayman Islands from the FATF greylist i.e., the list of countries under increased monitoring by the FATF.