ATTORNEY General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams, SC, who is also Chairman of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), is leading a nine-member Guyanese delegation to the CFATF-GAFIC XLVIII Plenary and Working Group Meetings.

The Plenary and Working Group Meetings are being held in Barbados from November 19th -23rd, 2018. Guyana’s delegation comprises members of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing Committee and representatives of those members. These persons are Dr Gobind Ganga, Governor of the Bank of Guyana; Mr Ramnarine Lal, Director of Banking Supervision at the Bank of Guyana; Mr Matthew Langevine, Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit; Ms Alicia Williams, Senior Compliance and Outreach Officer; Ms Eondrene Thompson, General Manager of the Guyana Gold Board; Mr Shaun Allicock, Legal Adviser for the Guyana Securities Council; Ms Natasha Backer of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions; Ms Joann Bond and Ms Diane Woolford, both of the Attorney General’s Chambers.

The Plenary will be chaired by Williams. The Working Group Meetings include the 29th Forum for Heads of FIU, CFATF Risks, Trends and Methods Working Group (CRTMG), Steering Group Meetings, CFATF Working Group on FATF Issues (WGFI) and Accreditation Council Meeting. Guyana’s representatives also chair the Heads of FIU and the CRTMG Meetings. At the Plenary, the Mutual Evaluation Report of The Cayman Islands will be discussed with a view to be adopted by the Plenary.

In a release, the AG’s Chambers said Guyana’s presence at this week’s meetings and plenary provides an opportunity for the various supervisory authorities to liaise with their international counterparts and exchange ideas on how to improve compliance with the FATF’s 40 Recommendations and Methodology which are the global standard for AML/CFT compliance. Additionally, it is an opportunity for Guyana to observe the CFATF’s 4th Round Mutual Evaluation process as Guyana will be evaluated in 2022.