Montserrat's Mutual Evaluation By CFATF Underway

The Mutual Evaluation by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) began on Monday.

The assessment will run until 19th April, 2024, and is part of a routine evaluation cycle to determine whether Montserrat has implemented systems that adequately prevent the facilitation of money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing.

Her Excellency Sarah Tucker and the Honourable Premier Joseph Farrell thanked those who work to ensure the island is protected against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

The evaluation of the anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) is based on the Forty Recommendations and the Nine Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The evaluation team is looking at the laws, regulations and other material supplied during the on-site evaluation, and meetings with officials and representatives of all relevant Montserrat government agencies and the private sector.

Montserrat’s first Money Laundering, and Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment was published earlier this year.

The NRA resulted in an overall National Money Laundering Risk rating of Medium-Low, which was a combination of the National Money Laundering Threat at Medium-Low and the Overall Sectoral Money Laundering Vulnerability at Medium.

Also, the NRA resulted in the Terrorists Financing Risk rating of Low , which was a combination of the Terrorist Financing Threat Assessment at Low and the Overall Terrorist Vulnerability Assessment at Low.

The underlying crimes identified as posing the most significant risk to money laundering and terrorist financing in Montserrat are fraud and tax crimes, among others.