THE Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 4th Round Mutual Evaluation not only focuses on technical compliance which examines the strength of laws within a country, but also on effectiveness which examines how well the established laws are being enacted to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. Effectiveness is proven primarily through statistics. This area is of such great importance that the (FATF) focuses on the subject in Recommendation 33.
This recommendation requires countries to maintain comprehensive statistics on matters which are pertinent to the effectiveness of their anti-money laundering systems. These statistics can include: information on the number of suspicious transaction reports received and disseminated, number of money laundering/terrorist financing prosecutions and convictions, information on property which is frozen, seized and confiscated and information on international co-operation requested and received or mutual legal assistance requests made and received.
The statistics identified above would mainly be kept by public sector stakeholders. Therefore, in the case of the number of suspicious activity reports received and disseminated this statistic would be maintained by the entity which collects these reports- the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA), whereas, the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Courts would collect statistics on the number of money laundering prosecutions and convictions, and the Attorney General’s Chambers collects statistics on mutual legal assistance and international co-operation.
It should be noted however that statistics from private sector stakeholders are equally as important in evidencing anti-money laundering measures. Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions such as realtors, accountants, casinos and attorneys are encouraged to keep statistics such as the number of suspicious activity reports which are filed with the FIA and the number of customer due diligence checks conducted.
During the course of a mutual evaluation statistics such as these are the yardstick by which implementation of laws and regulations is measured. As such this contributes to the rating which a country receives for the recommendations.
Financial institutions and designated non-financial business and professions are encouraged to implement systems for the proper collection and maintenance of statistics.
More information on this and the other Financial Action Task Force Recommendations can found on the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) website at https://www.cfatf-gafic.org.
Editor’s note: The preceding is Part 37 of a series by The Attorney General’s Chambers and the National Anti-Money Laundering Oversight Committee (NAMLOC) which aims to shed light on the 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force.