IMF team casts an eye over Bermuda
By Jonathan Kent
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Finance Minister Paula Cox
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Glenn Tucker
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Inspectors from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are on the Island as part of an ongoing assessment of offshore financial centres.
Bermuda is one of more than 40 jurisdictions scheduled to be visited by IMF reviewers this year and the delegation started work here on Monday.
The visit comes the week after key pieces of legislation to tighten up on compliance and strengthen anti-money-laundering measures were tabled in Parliament.
The Proceeds of Crime Amendment Act and the Criminal Justice (International Cooperation) (Bermuda) Amendment Act were bills put forward in the House of Assembly on Friday.
The IMF reviewers will be here until May 23, looking specifically at systems in place for anti-money-laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT), and weighing them up against international best practice.
A second visit will follow, from June 11 to 22, when the IMF reviewers will focus on the insurance and banking sectors.
Insurance regulation will come under the spotlight and particularly "stress testing", as a measure of a company's risk relating to financial stability. Banking regulation will also be examined.
Ensuring that Bermuda gets high marks from the IMF is seen as crucial to the Island's future as an international business centre.
A series of assessment meetings has been set up, allowing the IMF assessors to meet with representatives of the private sector, as well as the Government and financial regulator the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
Insurers, bankers, investment and trust managers, lawyers and accountants will be interviewed. Realtors and jewellers will also meet the IMF visitors, chiefly because of their potential as targets for money launderers.
The IMF last visited the Island four years ago and its findings were published two years ago. The assessors found that Bermuda was compliant, or largely compliant, with 85 out of 100 core principles or sub-principles. These covered banking, insurance, investment business and anti-money laundering / anti-terrorist financing controls.
Finance Minister Paula Cox said, after the report came out: "This is a very positive outcome, considering that the assessment dates from early 2003 at a time when some far-reaching amendments to standards were just beginning to be implemented internationally."
The reviewers will be checking that Bermuda has strengthened any weak areas identified last time.
Legislation in the pipeline will bolster the Island's case.
Amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Act will widen the requirement to report any suspicions of money-laundering. Any business suspicious of a client, not only banks, but also lawyers and accountants, for example, will be required to report their suspicions to the authorities. The scope of search powers will also be widened.
In addition, the Island is to create a new body to receive suspicious activity reports (SARs), to be known as the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA).
The FIA will gather and analyse SARs and will be abkle to pass on information to the Police Service's Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) and regulatory authorities in Bermuda and overseas.
