NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Securities Commission's top executive yesterday revealed that the regulator 2024 will begin issuing administrative penalties for Anti-money Laundering and Counter-terrorism Financing, noting that such breaches accounted for nearly two-thirds of breaches in licensee examinations completed so far this year.
"So far we have completed 32 examinations. We are in the process of issuing many of those reports. I think by the end of the year all of our licenses will have all of their reports," said Christina Rolle, the SCB's executive director, while addressing the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) Accountant's Week seminar on Tuesday.
"Most of the breaches we have identified are related to AML and CFT; almost two-thirds of them. That is a significant number. I think one of the things licensees should expect in 2024 is that the Commission will move to issue administrative penalties with respect to AML CFT breaches when they are found in an exam."
Rolle also noted that as a jurisdiction, The Bahamas is still seeing "very healthy interest" from entities in the digital assets space, despite the fall-out from the collapse of FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX was found guilty last week of defrauding customers and lenders after a five-week trial. Bankman-Fried was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering. These charges stemmed from his alleged actions that swindled customers of FTX and lenders to its affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research. FTX was based in The Bahamas at the time of its collapse in November 2022.
Rolle said: "I think one of the things we have to realize when we talk about the interest in the jurisdiction is that there was quite a bit of interest in the jurisdiction because FTX was here. If you discount that, I think we are still seeing very healthy interest in the jurisdiction."
She also said that amendments to the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Bill were not "FTX specific" but were in response to developments in the crypto industry as a whole.
Click here to read more on the Eye Witness News website
