“We are going to be attending plenary and at that plenary Saint Lucia applied for 7 recommendations for rerating and I am happy to report that all 7 recommendations have been re-rated positively. So Saint Lucia is going into this meeting having improved our re-rating standing just as last year.”
The recent review saw Saint Lucia achieve upgraded ratings across all targeted recommendations, moving from Non-Compliant to Partially Compliant for Recommendations 6 and 7 on sanctions related to terrorism and proliferation. Recommendation 26, which covers the regulation of financial institutions, also advanced from Non-Compliant to Largely Compliant. Further progress was made with Recommendations 15, 28, 33, and 38, all moving from Partially Compliant to Largely Compliant ratings. Alfred was also grateful for the government’s support to bring on board a full-fledged staff to implement the framework.
“The obligations to the CFATF and FATF are perpetual if I can use that word. And, it means that we need to have an institutional mechanism to be able to deal with these recommendations. So, Cabinet committed the financial support to ensure that we do now have a six-person team in the first instance as a support mechanism to implement the CFATF recommendations and to ensure that Saint Lucia is in a better place for the fifth round. Because the fifth round is coming.”
The fifth-round mutual evaluation will focus on Saint Lucia’s effectiveness in implementing and monitoring legislative amendments that strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering framework.
“So, when the assessors come to Saint Lucia for our fifth round mutual evaluation this is what they will be focused on. So that’s why that training was very important for us so that we could look at what systems we need to put in place in terms of ensuring the effectiveness of our systems across the board.”
Saint Lucia’s improved ratings follow its May 2023 application, which successfully upgraded 20 out of 22 FATF Recommendations. This progress, highlighted in the final report available on the CFATF website, reflects the NAMLOC’s commitment over the past three years to bolstering its framework for anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism, and counter-proliferation financing.