Jamaica “Black Listed” by the EU

• In February, the Government of Jamaica had agreed to an Action Plan with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to address longstanding deficiencies in Jamaica’s anti-money laundering framework .The process of a Government providing such a national commitment to FATF is generally known as being “grey-listed” by FATF.
• Despite these deficiencies FATF has primarily focused on countries where the economy’s size is above a certain threshold – having US$5 billion of financial assets using a monetary measure known as M2. In 2019, FATF changed this measure to what is known as M3, which is a broader measure of the economy. This change meant that, for the first time, Jamaica exceeded the US$5 billion threshold, which meant Jamaica would be included in the list of countries that FATF would focus on and monitor, a process known as 'greylisting’.
• The European Union has a law, passed in the European Parliament, that requires the automatic black-listing of any country that has been grey listed by FATF regardless of the reason. Once a country has been grey-listed by FATF, therefore, a black listing by the European Union is a non-negotiable response.
• Jamaica has until late 2021 to complete its Action Plan. Once this is done, Jamaica will be removed from FATF’s grey-list and the reversal of the EU’s action will also occur.

 (Source: MOF)