Money Laundering in Suriname: A Growing Concern, Warns CFATF

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago - The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) has identified significant strategic deficiencies in Suriname’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regime, posing a risk to the international financial system.

Strategic Deficiencies Uncovered

The CFATF has warned that if Suriname fails to take concrete steps to address these deficiencies by May 2016, it will consider implementing counter measures against the country. According to CFATF officials, Suriname’s AML/CFT regime is plagued by slow progress in implementing necessary amendments to become fully compliant with international standards.

Key Challenges

• Slow implementation of necessary amendments
• Failure to address identified deficiencies since the February 2012 High Level Mission

Some Progress Made

Despite some improvements made by Suriname, including:

• Strengthening customer due diligence requirements
• Criminalizing money laundering and terrorist financing CFATF officials believe that more needs to be done. The organization has developed an Action Plan with target dates for Suriname to address its strategic AML/CFT deficiencies, but so far, the country has failed to make sufficient progress.

Consequences of Inaction

If no concrete steps are taken by May 2016, CFATF will consider referring Suriname to the Financial Action Task Force International Cooperation Review Group (FATF ICRG) and urge its member countries to implement counter measures to protect their financial systems from money laundering and terrorist financing risks emanating from Suriname.

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