As white collar criminals become more creative the Ministry of Financial Services has joined forces with the Bahamas Association of Compliances Officers (BACO) to design a course that would make The Bahamas the first Caribbean jurisdiction to grant 15 scholarships for the certification of financial crime specialists.
The move is in conjunction with the Association of Certified Crime Specialist (ACFCS) – a worldwide organisation for private and public sector professionals who work in diverse financial crime disciplines, including anti-money laundering, FATCA-tax evasion, FCPA-corruption, fraud, data analytics and security, compliance, regulation and enforcement.
Financial Services Minister Ryan Pinder made the announcement during a news conference Monday.
“The Bahamas Government is committed to working closely with the international agency in this effort to shape a sensible approach for ensuring tax compliance and addressing the ever increasing financial crimes,” he said.
“The Government of The Bahamas is dedicated to doubling the investment in education and equipping the financial services industry with trained professionals through our commitment to human capital development. This programme is re-enforcing The Bahamas as the lead financial services centre within the jurisdiction ensuring our industry leaders and professionals are exposed to international training opportunities and resources. As a responsible financial centre, we are committed to not only adhering and meeting international regulatory requirements but also participating in their design.”
Minister Pinder explained that the aim of this programme is to promote The Bahamas as a leading centre for educational excellence through the education of financial services professionals.
“Certainly, we have spoken about developing the centre for education both in the region and internationally in financial services.
ACFCS President Charles Intriago commended The Bahamas for going to such lengths to strengthen its financial services industry.
“ACFCS is devoted to upgrading the knowledge and skill of financial services professionals in dealing with one of the major challenges they face day in and day out and it’s reflective of Minister Pinder’s vision that he wants to make it very clear that The Bahamas will not tolerate any financial crime in its financial sector and has taken the measures necessary to upgrade the skills and knowledge of the professionals such as those at BACO,” he said.
“All financial service crimes have certain commonalities like they all involve money laundering, they all produce tax evasion, they all require a financial institution to hide and disguise the proceeds and they always leave some agency poorer than it was before.
“Out of the billions of dollars stolen in financial crime less than one per cent is ever recovered. So if society is lucky enough to convict this person and send him or her to prison, he sleeps soundly knowing that the money is safe. So that is something that could be addressed during this very creative and innovative centre Mr. Pinder is constructing,” Mr. Intriago said.
Under the course, each person will receive the 340 certification examination study manual; online access, an on demand certification study course; a two-day lecture series, the certification exam and membership in ACFCS for one year.
Minister Pinder said he is proud that The Bahamas has very little financial services crimes.
“Financial crime is an ever evolving area. You hear about electronic financial crime and as industry evolves so does ways to have financial crimes. So we have to ensure that the capacity that you and BACO has built and developed over time stays in the forefront because they protect the industry and you start to neglect the evolution of financial crime you then leave yourself as a jurisdiction and all it takes is one significant financial crime event to be extremely damaging to the industry,” he said.
