Anti-money laundering training in April

IN a co-operative effort against financial resour-ces passing through Latin America and the Carib-bean to fund organised criminal or terrorist acti-vities, the Inter-America Development Bank (IDB), Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and Costa Rican, Dominican Republic, Panamanian and Venezuelan governments are partnering to spend US$100,000 on training of private and public sector officials in the financial industry.
IDB representative in Trinidad and Tobago, Williams J Robinson and the Executive Director Calvin Wilson recently signed the training agreement in Port-of-Spain.

Officials of banks and banking supervisory entities in the four member states of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) are to receive advanced training in the best methods to detect and prevent money launderers attempting to clean their ill-gotten gains through the official banking systems of the region.

At the signing ceremony Wilson noted the efforts of James Spinner, Rosina De Souza of the Washington office of the IDB and Rafael Franzini of the Organisation of American States in making the agreement possible.

He said the training programme, which is due to start in April, would result in additional support for the financial sector to prevent the infiltration of dirty money into the system.

The programme also provides an opportunity for regional banking regulators to share practical experiences for a hands-on perspective of how best to maintain the integrity of anti-money laundering systems.

CFATF has as one of its main responsibilities, the constant monitoring of the financial sector in its 29 member countries via its Mutual Evaluation Pro-gramme.
Wilson said this training programme was a demonstration of the political will of Caribbean countries to work with the international community to deter money launderers, drug dealers and terrorists from conducting their operations in this region.