Title: Dominica’s Progress in Fighting Financial Crimes: FATF Evaluation Reveals Compliance Levels
Dominica Mutual Evaluation 2023
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has recently evaluated Dominica’s progress in implementing the FATF Recommendations to prevent financial crimes such as money laundering and terrorist financing. The report, known as the Mutual Evaluation, provides ratings reflecting the country’s compliance level with each recommendation.
Key Areas of Evaluation
The evaluation covers several key areas including:
Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations
The following are the ratings for different recommendations related to money laundering and terrorist financing regulations:
- R.1 - Risk Assessment and Application of Risk-Based Approach: Largely Compliant
- R.2 - National Cooperation and Coordination: Partially Compliant
- R.3 - Money Laundering Offense: Compliant
- R.4 - Confiscation and Provisional Measures: Compliant
- R.5 - Terrorist Financing Offense: Compliant
- R.6 - Targeted Financial Sanctions related to Terrorism & Terrorist Financing: Partially Compliant
- R.7 - Targeted Financial Sanctions related to Proliferation: Not yet rated
- R.8 - Non-Profit Organizations: Partially Compliant
- R.9 - Financial Institution Secrecy Laws: Compliant (but has commitment to bring changes)
- R.10 - Customer Due Diligence: Largely Compliant
- R.11 - Record Keeping: Compliant
- R.12 - Politically Exposed Persons: Largely Compliant
- R.13 - Correspondent Banking: Compliant but improvement needed
- R.15 - New Technologies: Compliant but additional efforts required
- R.16 - Wire Transfers: Largely Compliant
Other Recommendations
The following are the ratings for different recommendations related to other areas:
- R.17 - Reliance on Third Parties: Compliant but needs more steps
- R.18 - Internal Controls and Foreign Branches & Subsidiaries: Compliant
- R.19 - Higher-risk Countries: Largely Compliant
- R.20 - Reporting of Suspicious Transactions: Compliant
- R.21 - Tipping-off and Confidentiality: Compliant
- R.22 - Designated and Non-Designated Businesses and Professionals (DNFBPs): Partially Compliant
- R.23 - DNFBPs: Other Measures: Not yet rated
- R.24 - Transparency and Beneficial Ownership of Legal Persons: Partially Compliant
- R.25 - Transparency and Beneficial Ownership of Legal Arrangements: Not yet rated
- R.26 - Regulation and Supervision of Financial Institutions: Largely Compliant
- R.27 - Powers of Supervisors: Largely Compliant
- R.28 - Regulation and Supervision of DNFBPs: Partially Compliant
- R.29 - Financial Intelligence Units: Compliant
Law Enforcement and Investigation
The following are the ratings for different recommendations related to law enforcement and investigation:
- R.30 - Responsibilities of Law Enforcement and Investigative Authorities: Compliant
- R.31 - Powers of Law Enforcement and Investigative Authorities: Largely Compliant
- R.33 - Statistics: Largely Compliant
International Cooperation
The following are the ratings for different recommendations related to international cooperation:
- R.34 - Guidance and Feedback: Compliant
- R.35 - Sanctions: Not yet rated
- R.36 - International Instruments: Compliant
- R.37 - Mutual Legal Assistance: Largely Compliant
- R.38 - Mutual Legal Assistance: Freezing and Confiscation: Partially Compliant
- R.39 - Extradition: Not yet rated
- R.40 - Other Forms of International Cooperation: Not yet rated
The FATF evaluation provides a comprehensive assessment of Dominica’s progress in implementing measures against financial crimes. The ratings for each recommendation will help guide the country in strengthening its financial crime prevention policies and practices.