Financial Crime World

DOMINICA FACES MIXED RESULTS IN MONEY LAUNDERING PREVENTION EVALUATION

A recent evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has revealed mixed results in Dominica’s efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The island nation scored a mix of compliant, largely compliant, partially compliant, and non-compliant ratings across various aspects of its anti-money laundering (AML) regime.

Compliant Areas

  • Confiscation and provisional measures
  • Terrorist financing offence
  • Reporting of suspicious transactions

Dominica received a “compliant” rating in these areas, indicating that it has implemented effective measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Partially Compliant Areas

  • Targeted financial sanctions related to terrorism and terrorist financing
  • DNFBPs (designated non-financial businesses and professions) customer due diligence

While Dominica made some progress in these areas, there is still room for improvement. Strengthening targeted sanctions and enhancing customer due diligence requirements are necessary steps to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Non-Compliant Areas

  • National cooperation and coordination

The evaluation revealed that Dominica’s national cooperation and coordination mechanisms were not effective, making it difficult to share information and coordinate efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. Addressing this issue is critical to improve the island nation’s AML regime.

Largely Compliant Areas

  • Assessing risk and applying a risk-based approach
  • Financial institution secrecy laws
  • Transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons

Dominica received a “largely compliant” rating in these areas, indicating that it has implemented effective measures to assess risks, maintain financial institution secrecy, and ensure transparency and beneficial ownership requirements.

Conclusion

The FATF evaluation is designed to assess countries’ implementation of anti-money laundering standards and recommendations. The results are intended to help countries improve their AML regimes and prevent the misuse of their financial systems for illicit activities.

Dominica’s authorities have been urged to address the areas where it fell short, including strengthening national cooperation and coordination, improving targeted sanctions, and enhancing transparency and beneficial ownership requirements. By doing so, Dominica can improve its AML regime and reduce the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing in its financial system.