Willemstad-In accordance with the current planning of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), Curaçao will be evaluated in the year 2022, as happened in the year 2011, on compliance with the 40 FATF recommendations. These recommendations concern international standards to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and arms proliferation.
The FATF recommendations were adopted in February 2012 and were last modified in November 2017. One of the main effects of the review is the new Recommendation 1. This recommendation indicates that each country must identify, assess and understand its risks of money laundering and terrorist financing.
In order to comply with this, Curaçao must carry out a national risk assessment / “National Risk Assessment” (NRA). On the proposal of the Minister of Finance, the government of Curaçao has set up a Steering Committee and a National Working Group for this by national decree. The Steering Committee, in collaboration with the World Bank, will organize the first “NRA Assessment workshops” this week, using a “NRA Tool” developed by the World Bank. The Steering Committee, consisting of representatives of the CIWG and FIU, also manages the National Working Group during the NRA process and is responsible for the final editing of the NRA report.
The National Working Group is responsible in particular for implementing the NRA and consists of representatives from relevant public sector bodies. To implement the various parts of the NRA Tool, sub-working groups have also been formed from the National Working Group. Depending on the subject to be addressed by a sub-working group, participants from the private sector also participate in these groups.
The workshops of the World Bank take place this week at the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten. During these workshops, the sub-working groups will begin collecting data about their area of interest and will submit these for processing in the NRA report. This data collection will be continued throughout the year from all sectors and services involved.
Among other things, the workshops aim to introduce participants to the risk analysis aspect and the relevant developments concerning money laundering and the financing of terrorism. It is also envisaged that the workshops will serve as a platform for the exchange of views on money laundering and terrorist financing and that these workshops will simultaneously facilitate the cooperation between the public and private sector in respect of the same two aforementioned risk areas. It is therefore expected that participants will be very intensively involved with each other in order to give a good start to the NRA process. In preparation for this week, a joint “pre-meeting” has already been held and the various sub-working groups have subsequently come together under the coordination of the respective team leaders for an introductory round.
We therefore trust that the NRA process will be very successful and will provide the necessary insight to further improve the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in Curaçao.
Minister of Finance