By JASMIN BONIMY, Guardian Staff Reporter
Jasmin@nasguard.com
The country's watchdog for money laundering is now being challenged by terrorism financing.
Speaking exclusively to The Nassau Guardian, Stephen Thompson, inspector of the Compliance Commission said his department has been mandated to address the financing of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
"When we talk about anti-money laundering we have to recognise that very recently the combating of terrorist financing has also been added to that initiative," said Inspector Thompson. "Therefore now you would find that most persons would hear the terminology being used along with anti-terrorist financing.
"I say that to say right now our challenge is not only money laundering; it is also terrorist financing," he continued. "So whatever we do moves in that direction."
Insp Thompson added that detection of terrorism financing has proven to be more difficult than money laundering.
"Many people use those terminologies interchangeably but money laundering is very different from terrorist financing," Insp Thompson explained. "Money laundering is really the process by which a person actually tries to clean up ill-gotten funds. This means that they get it into the financial service sector and they take it back out clean.
"Terrorist financing on the other hand is much more challenging in that persons even use legitimate funds to finance terrorist activities," he continued. "So you're not talking about looking at terrorist behaviour because it may not show up in the first point. So terrorist financing is very challenging."
The Compliance Commission Inspector also claimed that there have been no cases or terrorism financing in The Bahamas. He credited this to the strict regulations put in place by the government over the past two years.
"We have the Anti-Terrorism Act which was passed in 2004 and that is specifically geared towards combating terrorism so the law is working with us," he said. "We would think that certainly with the regulatory framework in place persons will be discouraged from supporting terrorist activities."
But Inspector Thompson insisted the Commission must remain up-to-date on international terrorist activities if it plans to remain successful.
"I feel as though once we are working towards strengthening the regulatory framework and we have persons in there who are keeping abreast of what is happening globally we will be successful," he said. "I don't see that we can do more than watching the global trends of terrorism activities and making sure that financial institutions closely monitor the activities of their clients."
The Compliance Commission is an independent statutory authority responsible for enforcing compliance with the anti-money laundering rules and regulations found in financial legislation. The government entity also monitors real estate brokers and developers, credit unions, financial and corporate service providers, and managers of third party funds.
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