The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The European Union (EU) could decide whether to delist The Bahamas from its blacklist by month's end if meetings between the two sides prove fruitful, the attorney general said yesterday.

Carl Bethel QC, speaking during the legal year's opening ceremony, said The Bahamas had met with key EU Commission officials as recently as this week.

He said: “We have held a further meeting just this week with the director-general of FISMA (The EU's department for financial stability and capital markets), John Berrigan, and expect some further consultation at a technical level before the end of this month. If things prove satisfactory, then the EU Commission will consider whether to delist the Bahamas from the EU blacklist.”

While awaiting the outcome of these negotiations, Mr Bethel hailed the legislation passed last year to bolster The Bahamas' case to be removed from the EU's blacklist of nations deemed to have deficiencies in their anti-financial crime defences.

He cited the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges (DARE) Act; the Financial and Corporate Services Providers Act; the Beneficial Owners Amendment Act; along with the Securities Industries Contract or Differences Rules 2020; and the Securities Industry Takeover Amendment Rules 2020 as further solidifying the financial services regulatory framework as well as improving the industry's competitiveness.

Mr Bethel added:“The Register of Beneficial Ownership Act was passed, along with a new Financial Intelligence Unit Act, and two other Acts to further regulate the virtual assets sector will shortly be tabled in Parliament. The proposals in these Acts will place The Bahamas at the very forefront of regulation of virtual assets.”

The attorney general added that financial services providers had reitrerated the importance of operating in a “clean, well-regulated and reputable jurisdiction", saying: "We hope that by the passage of these Bills regulating virtual assets we will have another weapon to assist us in expanding and diversifying financial services.”

Mr Bethel added that major technology reforms had been implemented at the Registrar General's Department to prevent a repeat of the cyber attacks it suffered in recent years.

He said the Government's Department of Transformation and Digitisation, together with its cloud services provider, Cloud Carib, and the Royal Bahamas Police Force had removed 45 computersand upgraded all information technology (IT) equipment on Grand Bahama in addition to changing and “strengthening” all user passwords in the system that houses the civil and corporate registries.