Welcome Remarks from Hon. Rhondalee Braithwaite-Knowles - CFATF XLIV Plenary 2016
WELCOME REMARKS
BY
THE HONOURABLE RHONDALLE BRAITHWAITE-KNOWLES OBE,
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
MADE AT
CARIBBEAN FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE XLIV PLENARY
TROPICANA PLAZA
THE BIGHT
PROVIDENCIALES
TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
7TH – 10TH NOVEMBER 2016
It is an honour and privilege to welcome you— our CFATF family and specially invited guests assembled here this morning—for the opening of this 24th Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) Plenary being convened in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands.
The attendance of nearly 180 delegates demonstrates the strong collective commitment of our governments, as well as regional and international organisations to further our regional efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism and weapons proliferation in our financial systems. It also recognizes the importance of regional participation and engagement at the start of this fourth round of mutual evaluations against the FATF internationally recognized standards. The fourth round emphasizes a risk based approach to achieve effectiveness through our respective legislative and administrative frameworks.
To be effective, legislative and administrative frameworks need to be supported by targeted awareness raising on the nature of money laundering and its harmful effects, appropriate training of regulators and practitioners and the appropriate application of counter measures.
To achieve the best results in demonstrating the sufficiency of our regional legislative and administrative frameworks, the full commitment and participation of regional governments is critically needed in specific areas such as active involvement in our mutual evaluation programme through the provision of trained assessors, the use of those trained assessors to comment on draft reports before they are finalised, to offer those trained assessors as reviewers, to use the expertise gained by those trained assessors to contribute to more vibrant and informed discussions at the Working Group and Plenaries; to provide active engagement in the work of the oversight bodies of our organization in the Steering Group and the Human Resources Committee, the Budget and Audit Committee and the Planning Committee; and equally as important, to make our financial contributions and offer secondments to support the work of our CFATF Secretariat and enrich expertise within our individual jurisdictions.
It is important at this juncture to recognize and thank our members and the Group of Cooperating and Supporting Nations and Observer organizations who have for many years shown true dedication and true commitment through active participation in the regional fight to protect our financial systems by providing tangible technical and financial support for CFATF initiatives. In particular, the professionalism, dedication and patience of our Secretariat must be recognized with sincere appreciation for the key role they play in assisting our members and our region to be compliant with the FATF recommendations.
We have tremendously benefited over the last year from the energetic and determined leadership of Chairman Al Rawi on behalf of Trinidad and Tobago who has generously given of his time, and secured and delivered financial and human resources from that jurisdiction to our benefit. Chairman Al Rawi has further committed and already began to demonstrate a continued high level of support during the upcoming year in his role as the immediate former Chair.
Our organization continues to undertake internal reviews and seek improvements in our policies to ensure that we maintain our focus on our core responsibilities and effectiveness. Challenging issues and important policy initiatives related to the technical aspects of our work and to good governance must be resolved and finalised and will require bravery, patience, leadership and above all cooperation.
Friends and Colleagues, we have come together, as key regional and international stakeholders not only to assess compliance with the internationally recognized standards, but to seek solutions for the broad spectrum of issues impacting the viability of our regional financial systems - such as the risks associated with the loss of correspondent banking relationships, even after the tremendous legislative and financial commitments made by the political directorate in our governments during the third round. This potentially destabilizing issue demands collaboration amongst public and private sector colleagues.
There remains a lot for us to do together to protect our financial systems against criminal activities. The Turks and Caicos Islands counts it a privilege to be at the heart of these regional efforts and welcomes the opportunity to work with the Hon. Attorney General and colleagues from Guyana as the incoming Deputy Chair to tackle these issues on behalf of our region.
Friends and Colleagues, it is against that backdrop that I welcome you to the Turks and Caicos Islands and to this 24th CFATF Plenary as Trinidad and Tobago hands over the mantle of leadership to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
It is our hope that, in addition to participating in official Plenary and working group duties, you have also had an opportunity to experience the warm hospitality of the Turks and Caicos Islands people and to be exposed to and enjoy some of our award winning ‘Beautiful By Nature’ environment.
Thank you and once again welcome to The Turks and Caicos Islands.