THE Insurance Association of Guyana (IAG), in an invited comment from the Guyana Chronicle, yesterday, indicated that the umbrella organisation, which represents major names in Guyana’s insurance industry, will be meeting to discuss the impact of the non-passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill (AML/CFT) on the insurance sector.

The organisation has expressed through media statements the concern that all sectors of the industry’s operations requiring life, health, motor, cargo, marine, aircraft, liability, accident, fire and catastrophic loss insurance would be adversely limited due to potential blacklisting by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).
The organisation has, since 2013, called for the passage of the AML/CFT bill. According to them, the non-passage of the Bill would result in intensified financial pressures for transactions conducted by the collective industry.
The membership of the IAG comprises Assuria Life (Guyana) Incorporate, Caricom General Insurance Company Incorporated, Demerara Mutual Fire Insurance Company Limited, Diamond Fire and General Insurance Company Incorporated, Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire Insurance and Life Group of Companies, and North American Life Insurance Company Limited.
In 2013, the IAG combined voices with the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the Government of Guyana in the call for the National Assembly to pass the AML/CFT (Amendment) Bill.
“The member companies of the Insurance Association of Guyana, urge the 65 members of our Parliament to urgently consider the ramifications of our failure to pass the anti-money laundering act into law”, according to a press statement released by the IAG in 2013, further noting that the subject amendment bill and the impact of the CFATF assessment is a matter of national emergency, which ought to take precedence over any domestic or political issue.
“Indeed it threatens the viability and integrity of our financial sector and the well-being of this nation”, the statement continued.
Insurance and banking transactions, the IAG said, will become nearly impossible; without the global acceptance of risk, a small country with limited insurance bearing capacity, such as Guyana, cannot effectively insure the country’s assets.
Efforts to call for the passage of the bill have proven to be futile.
The Caribbean Financial Action task Force (CFATF), in May 2014, issued a ‘name and shame’ advisory citing Guyana’s non-compliance with CFATF regulations and urged Member countries to implement measures to protect their financial systems against money-laundering and terrorist financing threats emanating from Guyana.
Written By Derwayne Wills