THE Bank of Guyana (BoG) will be utilising specific tactics and placing Money Transfer Agencies (MTAs) and cambios under “intensive supervision” in an effort to meet international standards.

This is according to Director of the Bank of Guyana (BoGs)’s Supervision Department Ramnarine Lall, who made this report at a seminar on Guyana’s Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment on Wednesday.

The BoG is being guided by a National Risk Assessment (NRA) report and a Risk-based Action Plan formulated by the country with a view to meeting guidelines set out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing locally.

Guyana currently has high money laundering risk and a medium terrorist financing threat and, therefore, in keeping with the Risk-based Action Plan, the bank is currently performing regular reviews and updates of supervisory policies, procedures and manuals for the financial sector.

In June 2018, commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions were reviewed for their risk-based approach on Anti-Money Laundering (AML), while insurance companies were reviewed in January 2018.
However, before the end of the year, the bank intends to complete this review on MTAs and cambios.

On the topic, Lall commented: “The Bank Supervision Department was given the responsibility because we recognised that money transfer agencies and cambios are high-risk, based on the National Risk Assessment. We wanted to put them under proper supervision, intensive supervision.”

The bank is also in the process of finalising a guideline for the supervision of money transfer agencies and cambios.

The action plan also stipulates that measures be put in place to regulate unlicensed cambios in the country and that this is to be managed primarily by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the BoG.

“We have a list of all the licensed cambios on our website. But we know that activities happen outside the regular cambios…the Bank of Guyana doesn’t have the sort of police powers to go and do those types of [law enforcing]. So we have to collaborate with the police…that is something that is a work in progress as well,” Lall said.

Among the other priorities of BoG’s action plan are the formulation of Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) for the sharing of information among critical agencies to improve national cooperation for investigation and prosecution of financial crimes.

Others include the training of staff responsible for AML/CFT supervision; regular, comprehensive risk-based supervisory programmes and the acquiring of adequate resources for various functions and financial inclusion projects.

Lall then commended the initiative of the Ministry of Legal Affairs for hosting the seminar, which he says will help the bank to do its part in preparing Guyana to meet criteria set out by FATF for its Fourth Round of Mutual Evaluation process set for 2022.

“I commend the attorney general [Minister Basil Williams] for having this seminar because when we take stock of it now, if we identify gaps we know where we have to address, what we have to do, we don’t have to wait on 2022 when the Mutual Evaluation is here,” he said, adding.

“Even if the Bank of Guyana has a few outstanding items, it is identifying those and will address those over the course of time.”