Dominica’s Anti-Money Laundering Regulations Under Scrutiny: A Mixed Bag of Compliance
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released its latest mutual evaluation report on Dominica, assessing the country’s progress in implementing anti-money laundering regulations. The report reveals a mixed bag of compliance across various aspects of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.
Areas of Strength
According to the report, Dominica is largely compliant with several key requirements:
- National cooperation and coordination (R.2)
- Customer due diligence (R.10)
- Record keeping (R.11)
- Reporting of suspicious transactions (R.20)
The country also receives a high score for its regulation and supervision of financial institutions (R.26) and the powers of supervisors (R.27).
Areas for Improvement
However, Dominica falls short in several areas:
- Assessing risk and applying a risk-based approach (R.1)
- Confiscation and provisional measures (R.4)
- Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing (R.6)
The country is also partially compliant with requirements relating to:
- Non-profit organizations (R.8)
- New technologies (R.15)
- Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons (R.24)
Additional Concerns
In addition, Dominica has room for improvement in its implementation of measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing in the real estate sector, as well as in its regulation and supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs).
The FATF report notes that Dominica has made significant progress in recent years but still needs to address several outstanding issues. The country’s financial intelligence unit also requires strengthening to effectively identify and investigate suspicious transactions.
Conclusion
Overall, while Dominica shows some areas of strong compliance, it must continue to work on implementing the remaining recommendations to strengthen its anti-money laundering regime and maintain international cooperation.
Key Takeaways:
- Dominica needs to improve its risk assessment and application of a risk-based approach
- The country requires strengthening in its implementation of measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing in the real estate sector and DNFBPs
- The financial intelligence unit needs improvement to effectively identify and investigate suspicious transactions
- Dominica must continue to work on implementing remaining recommendations to strengthen its anti-money laundering regime and maintain international cooperation.