National AML/CFT Committee working on new laws to effectively combat money laundering and terrorist financing
March 19, 2021
The National Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Committee held its second meeting for the year 2021, on Thursday the 18th March 2021.
The meeting is the first, since Seychelles submitted its report to the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group, (ESAAMLG), in early March, for re-ratings regarding to its Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) adopted in September, 2018.
Members of the Committee discussed the time frame for other legislative frameworks which the country has to undertake during the year in order to meet its international obligations and the AML/CFT standards established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
There remains at least some other laws which Seychelles has to enact in order to fully comply with FATF recommendations and they are as follows:
- Re-enactment of the Registration of Association Act;
- New Asset Management Framework;
- Amendments to the Beneficial Ownership Act, 2020; and
- Virtual Assets Service Providers Bill, 2021.
The Committee agreed that work on these laws is a top priority and a deadline of June has been set for the laws to be presented to the National Assembly.
The enactment of these remaining laws, will continue to demonstrate that Seychelles is committed and proactive in achieving progress in the implementation of all recommendations set out by the FATF.
Another matter discussed was establishing proper structures/mechanisms to collect AML/CFT related statistics, which ultimately will give an indication of ‘effectiveness’ to the measures Seychelles is working so tirelessly to implement, as well as inform key stakeholders of Seychelles’ money laundering and terrorist financings risks. The Committee agreed to establish protocols that will inform key stakeholders on what data to capture, frequency of data collection, compilation of statistics, and statistical reconciliation.
To note, ESAAMLG will discuss Seychelles’ re-rating requests to its Mutual Evaluation Report in September 2021, but this process will not involve the aforementioned legislations. These improvements will be discussed by ESAAMLG in 2022.
Nevertheless, Seychelles considers it important to convey to the international community of its continued commitment to effectively combat money laundering and terrorist financing and this activity highlights its continued efforts to implement an effective AML/CFT regime.