The European Union adopted a new regulation on Friday 7 January to update the EU AML blacklist, including delisting The Bahamas, just days after it was officially removed from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) grey list of nations deemed to have deficiencies in their anti-financial crime defences.
The Office of the Attorney General said in a statement that "the FATF congratulated The Bahamas for the ‘significant progress' it has made in improving its AML/CFT/CFP regime", adding that the FATF also stated that "The Bahamas has strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT system and addressed related technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in its action plan and remedy the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF in October 2018.
"The Bahamas is therefore no longer subject to the FATF's increased monitoring process. The Bahamas will continue to work with CFATF to improve further its AML/CFT regime."
In a further update on the EU delisting of The Bahamas from the European list of third country jurisdictions which have strategic deficiences in their AML/CFT regimes (AML Blacklist), the OAG said on 11 January: "This favorable outcome of the many months of engagement is a welcomed one and comes almost 12 months after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) delisted The Bahamas on the 18th of December 2020 from its List of Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring (FATF's Grey List).
"The Bahamas will continue to work with European Union and all international partners as we seek to maintain our AML/CFT/CFP regime on par with international agreed measures which safeguard the global financial system.
"We wish to acknowledge and thank the tremendous dedication and commitment of the coordinating team comprising the National Identified Risk Framework Coordinator, Dr. Cassandra Nottage, the members of the International Legal Cooperation and Compliance Units of the Office of the Attorney-General, for this most desired conclusion to European Union's AML Review Process.
"We also wish to thank the DG FISMA team led by John Berrigan, Director-General, for the cordial engagement with The Bahamas during the review and assessment of our AML/CFT/CFP regime."
