The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Attorney General yesterday said legal reforms to assist with the next international evaluation of The Bahamas’ anti-crime defences will be tabled in Parliament before the May Budget unveiling.

Ryan Pinder KC, speaking at the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Bahamas conference, said changes to the Financial Transactions Reporting Act (FTRA) will allow the nation to prepare for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF’s) fifth round mutual evaluation and revisions to the latter’s recommendations 24 and 25.

“There are going to be new anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, new Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and obligations of trust companies and trustees with respect to beneficial owners, with respect to settlers, with respect to protectors and anybody else who would have some sort of effective control over the trust,” said Mr Pinder.

“You now will be fully brought into the FTRA with respect to these parties on what you have to do to comply with AML requirements and AML standards. We have a draft of the FTRA Amendment Bill already prepared. We’ll certainly release that out for public consultation.”

Mr Pinder advised trust companies to “bolster” their compliance and warned that changes will be made quickly, as they must be implemented and monitored for a year before on-site inspections in October 2026.

“This will move pretty quickly, because remember, we’re going for mutual evaluations, and we not only have to prove the laws are compliant, but they’re implemented and they’re monitored, which means we need to have some on-site inspections before 2026. We need to know that everybody’s complying. These amendments, will move pretty quickly. My goal is to have them debated and passed in Parliament before the Budget,” said Mr Pinder.

“Everybody can have the summer time when things are a little slower to look at what the obligations are to start collecting the due diligence you need to collect, start understanding what you have to do on a nominee shareholder basis, and so we would have at least one year of effective compliance that can be tested by the inspectors.”

Mr Pinder said he “absolutely” does not support implementing a trust register and, if the legislative changes are made to the FTRA and implemented for a year, The Bahamas may be able to demonstrate there is sufficient oversight under the legislation.

“I absolutely do not support the trust register, whether it be public or private. I don’t think it’s appropriate, and as long as I’m in this chair, that’s not going to happen, and so we won’t have a trust register. Which means that we have to be serious about the regulatory function of it and the FTRA, and moving quickly and ensuring that we have data to test,” said Mr Pinder.

“I think if we do that, and we’re serious about it, and the industry understands what we have to accomplish, even though it may be a shift in how you operate, I think we can avoid the position of having to address a trust register. If we’re lackadaisical about it and we’re not serious and we’re combative, and all of that, then I think we kind of get pushed into a corner a little bit, and we have to be very careful with that.

“We’re known for excellence. We’re known for 40/40. We’re known for doing what we need to do to comply, and we’re known for having a co-operative relationship between the Government, the industry and the regulators, which I think all helps in what we’re trying to do.”