Allan Wright
Country Office Economist, IDB Bahamas
On February 13, 2019, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas (The Bahamas), along with 22 other jurisdictions, was included on an updated list of high-risk third jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes published by the European Commission (the Commission) of the European Union (EU).
The list stems from an increased impetus by the EU to step up its AML/CFT monitoring in the wake of several major money laundering scandals involving European banks in recent years. On March 5, 2019, the EU Council rejected this expanded list, which included 11 jurisdictions not included on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of High-Risk and Other Monitored Jurisdictions. The Commission is presently working on formulating another list to be presented to the EU Council and Parliament for approval.