Vivienne Dean, senior manager of the Ministry of Tourism's legal department, told Guardian Business yesterday that boosting compliance training efforts involving the country's gaming industry is crucial in meeting international anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CTF) standards.
Dean said that gaming compliance is increasingly important to the country following the recent first phase of the National Risk Assessment (NRA), a collaborative effort between the government and the World Bank designed to address the areas of the Bahamian economy most at risk for money laundering and terrorism financing.
"We have to bring all of our industries that are susceptible to money laundering and terrorism financing into a regulated regime. We're taking the right strides in ensuring the integrity of the country remains in place," said Dean.
The NRA is expected to produce a report within the next six months.
Dean's remarks follow her contributions to the Bahamas Association of Compliance Officers' (BACO) annual MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) Day last week.
Dean suggested that know your customer (KYC) policies, such as reporting foreign exchange earnings, are integral to future compliance training initiatives.
"We will continue addressing KYC issues and ensure that everybody that has to deal with appropriate patrons is fully aware of the [AML] requirements that are in place," said Dean.
In a separate interview with Guardian Business, BACO President Shasta Treco-Moxey hailed the two-day conference, which included a pre-conference workshop on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), culminating on the second day with presentations inclusive of human trafficking, cybercrime, the National Risk Assessment, achieving compliance and an "ask the regulator" panel, enhancing due diligence and completing an STR (suspicious transaction report), among other topics. Treco-Moxey also mentioned that BACO is in the process of sourcing and implementing gaming training/workshops in the first quarter of 2015.
"We've been able to speak to different experts from other jurisdictions similar to The Bahamas in respect to the legalization of sports betting and other types of betting that were subcultures within their own jurisdictions. We thought that these persons could lend their experiences and provide a great asset in regards to assisting us with training in gaming," said Treco-Moxey.
Industry guidance
Additionally, Treco-Moxey further elaborated on BACO's pre-conference FATCA workshop centered on creating effective FATCA compliance programs, led by Kellee Albury and Kristle Jeffers of Deloitte, stating many of its members have expressed difficulties in implementing effective FATCA compliance programs and readiness in absence of industry guidelines.
"These guidelines will further serve to provide a definitive direction from a country standpoint so that we are all on one cohesive approach. One such aspect is that of the self-certification forms which require approval by the U.S. Treasury from a country level.
"The difficulty that the guidelines' delay, the final approved IGA (intergovernmental agreement) and any subsequent self-certification presents, is that there is more speculation and concerns on what is expected of compliance professionals," said Treco-Moxey.
"While we understand that there is guidance from the U.S. Treasury on specific dates for implementation and for the most part, many business are working to meet those deadlines, one such element of the industry that raises uncertainties is that of SMART funds and their classification as deemed compliant/trustee documented trust," said Treco-Moxey.
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