St. Kitts-Nevis government passes anti-money laundering (national committee) bill, 2019 to combat financial crime

Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 31, 2020 (SKNIS): As part of the fight against financial crime, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has passed the Anti-Money Laundering (National Committee) Bill, 2019 in accordance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on January 23, 2020.

Attorney General and Minister responsible for Justice and Legal Affairs, Honourable Vincent Byron, said that the FATF is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money-laundering.

Minister Byron went on to further explain that the “FATF, as an arm of the OECD, has been given the mandate to monitor the Financial sector around the world and that sector was judged as having to oversee that financial systems as they apply to various countries, conform to good practices that deal with anti-money laundering (AML), or that they dealt with financing of terrorism around the world.”

St. Kitts and Nevis “will undergo a face to face, on-site assessment by regional experts from the CFATF in March of this year,” he said.

The CFATF, is the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, and a regional style body of the FATF.

Attorney General Byron said that “the FATF has developed, Mr. Speaker, a series of recommendations that are recognised as the international standard for combating of money laundering.”

“What we are here to do today, is basically to put in place a committee that will help us to make ourselves ready for the onsite visit that occurs in March,” Minister Byron

As such, in accordance with the international standards for combating money laundering, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has passed the National Anti-Money Laundering (National Committee) Bill, 2019 to prepare for the on-site assessment by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force.