Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Deputy Leader Chester Cooper says his party is prepared to work with the government to save the financial sector of the country. In a statement released yesterday, he noted the outcome of the recent Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary in Paris that found The Bahamas listed in its “compliance document”, with implied threats of further action.
Mr. Cooper noted that this is an unfortunate, but “not unexpected given The Bahamas’ history of being targeted”.
“The PLP stands ready to work constructively with the government in efforts to protect the country’s financial services sector.”, he said.
He added, “It clearly makes no difference to these international bodies which political party governs The Bahamas, as they seem to have The Bahamas in their sights for some time, while they continue to unevenly apply punitive measures related to issues of anti-money laundering and taxes to the country’s financial services sector”.
The statement stated that from numerous evaluations conducted on onshore financial centers, significant deficiencies in their anti-money laundering regimes have been found without any punitive measures taken.
Mr. Cooper also said, “It is also documented that the most egregious cases of money laundering and terrorist financing have taken place in onshore financial centers of OECD member countries.”
Therefore, he said, “the protectionist nature of the punitive measures taken against international financial centers such as The Bahamas is compounded by the fact that most of the countries subjected to punitive measures are non-members of the OECD, despite The Bahamas in particular having been responsive in addressing these threats against our sovereignty for years on end.”
The PLP’s Deputy Leader added, “ we must continue to act, and we must do so hastily and prudently. The action plan adopted by the plenary calls for The Bahamas to produce implementation of the vigorous measures taken to address AML/CTF threats.”
He said that the PLP looks forward to speaking with the government inside and outside of parliament to address the complexities inherent with the proposed legislation.
