Schnoor: TT must do more with finance laws

abling legislation is passed and the BIR (Board of Inland Revenue) is able to meet its reporting obligations.” schnoor warned that FATCA is “but one of a long series of legislative items that need to be urgently addressed to ensure TT meets its obligations to strengthen the financial sector.” she said Parliament needs to “quickly pass” the Insurance Act,

amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Act, the Financial Obligations Regulations, cybercrime legislation, as well as strengthen the Anti-Terrorism Act, the electronic Transfer of Funds Crime Act and many more. “It is one thing to have a piece of legislation on the books, it’s entirely another to have a well equipped and trained police force and other regulatory agencies to ensure en

“We again congratulate the Government for signing the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) related to FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) that forms the basis for us to meet this important (United states) compliance requirement. The signing of the IGA however is just the start of the process.” “There is much work left to be done to ensure we meet critical deadlines and become truly compliant with this new regulation. We therefore continue to encourage the Government and Opposition to work together to ensure the enforcement.”

Schnoor added that with TT now qualifying for automatic referral to the International Cooperation Review Groups (ICRG) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), “it is even more critical that all stakeholders come together and work to ensure we strengthen the enforcement regime before TT is yet again faced with the stark reality of a country grey listing. The implications of this is too concerning for us even to consider.”

Asked by Newsday what was at stake, the BATT president noted that if a local bank doesn’t have a correspondent bank in the Us, it would not be able to “issue credit cards in (TT) anymore because we wouldn’t be able to settle (payments) with Visa and MasterCard, we’d not be able to do wire transfers. so we we would literally be cut out of the banking system.”

Remittances and manufacturers’ ability to settle overseas bills were two other examples given by Schnoor, who reminded that “every US transaction has to go through a US bank and it requires us to have a correspondent relationship.” “They are not going to bank us if we’re not in compliance and showing that we take these things seriously. This is not something that only started in the last year. I want to make that clear.” Schnoor was speaking with reporters following a function to officially welcome the new BATT executive, held on Wednesday evening at the Scotiabank Hospitality suite, Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain.