Lawyers, accountants and those in private practice will soon be brought under regulations as part of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) regulations to ensure Guyana clears the Fourth Round of Mutual Evaluation by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force. (CFATF)

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance, the FIU said Guyana’s evaluation under CFATF Third Round of Mutual Evaluation process revealed that it was rated as Partially Compliant (PC) and Non-Compliant (NC) in all sixteen of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Key and Core Recommendations which resulted in it being required to undertake various corrective measures, one of which was the appointment of Supervisory Authorities for all reporting entities. As such, in preparation for its Fourth Round of Mutual Evaluation, Guyana must have in place a robust regulatory and supervisory framework for all the reporting sectors.
According to the FIU,the implementation process therefore requires ensuring that all reporting entities under the AML/CFT Act of 2009, comply with sections 15, 16, 18, 19 and 20 of the said Act. These provisions relate, among other things, to the conducting of customer due diligence, record keeping and maintenance, submitting suspicious and other reports to the FIU and appointment of Compliance Officer.
The FIU said it has conducted several training sessions with most of the categories of reporting entities, which provided information on their obligations under the AML/CFT Act, including training on reporting formats for submission of the required reports to the FIU. Guidelines on suspicious, terrorist property reports and Reporting Entity’s Compliance Regime were also published and made available on the aforementioned website. To date, the FIU said most of the reporting entities have made some progress in developing their AML/CFT regimes, in terms of appointing compliance officers, conducting customer due diligence and consistently submitting large cash, terrorist property and suspicious reports to the FIU.
“Though this achievement is noteworthy, the country needs to do much more if it is to fully satisfy the requirement relating to regulation, supervision and monitoring of compliance by these sectors, which must be done by a Supervisory Authority or supervisory mechanism.
To date, Supervisory Authorities have been appointed for: cambios,money transfer agencies, insurance companies,unit trust,securities,pawnbrokers/money lenders,dealers in precious metals,dealers in precious & semi precious stones,Friendly societies,casinos,cooperative societies/credit unions,real estate,used car/car parts dealers,betting shops and lotteries.
However,the FIU said that while supervisory authorities have been appointed for most of the reporting entities, no supervisory authority was appointed for attorneys-at-law, notaries, independent legal professionals and accountants, who are required to comply with specified provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act No. 13 of 2009, when they prepare for or carry out transactions for their clients concerning activities such as: buying and selling of real estate,managing of client money, securities or other assets,management of bank, savings or securities accounts,organisation of contributions for the creation, operation or management of companies, or creation, operation or management of legal persons or arrangements, and buying and selling of business entities and (Non-Financial) Trust or Company Service Provider which as a business, provide any of the following services to third parties as covered under the Civil Law of Guyana Act, Cap 6;01: acting as a formation, registration or management agent of legal persons;acting as, or arranging for another person to act as a director or secretary of a company, a partner of a partnership, or a similar position in relation to other legal persons; Providing a registered office,business address or accommodation, correspondence or administrative address for a company, a partnership or any other legal person or arrangement; acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a trustee of an express trust; Acting as, or arranging for another person to act as, a nominee shareholder for another person.

The FIU said it has already met with all of the supervisory authorities that have been appointed to date and informed them of their role and expectation as AML/CFT supervisors. “The FIU has also issued and published a number of guidelines, including an examination guideline designed to guide supervisory authorities on the procedure to be employed when conducting an examination of the sectors under their supervision.” Additionally, the FIU said it is in consultations with stakeholders to assist with identifying an appropriate supervisory authority for the two outstanding sectors.