Bahamas removed from FATF money laundering list

Paris based Financial Action Task Authority (FATF), the regulating body established by G7 to combat money laundering, has removed Bahamas from the list of ‘increased monitoring’ jurisdictions. The move now means that the Bahamas is no longer subject to heightened levels of monitoring.

Since December 2018, the Bahamas has remained partially compliant with 10 of the 40 recommendations the FATF have recommended. Since then the Bahamas have made strong progress to strengthen the effectiveness of its money laundering regime, meeting recommendations provided by FATF by April 2020.

Disruptions occurred due to COVID-19 which prevented on site inspection from FATF, giving the Bahamas an increased time frame to take further measures to improve. In September 2020, the Bahamas government announced ‘tremendous efforts’ to remove itself from the FATF grey list, however segregated accounts companies in the Bahamas were seen as vulnerable and a weakness in relation to anti-money laundering framework and monitoring was continued.

In December 2020, the Bahamas was removed from FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring due to their continued commitment. Bahamas will continue to work with the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force to further improve its anti-money laundering regime. Click here for more information on Company formation in the Bahamas