Guyana close to Egmont Group membership – Nandlall

…as country continues to build AML/CFT capabilities

Guyana is on the cusp of becoming a member of the Egmont Group, an international group of member countries focused on Anti-Money Laundering/Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).
This was recently revealed by Attorney General Anil Nandlall, during a recent event that saw a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) being signed by representatives from agencies that are involved in the AML/CFT world.

Nandlall explained that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has had to do much work to improve its AML/CFT architecture. And joining the Egmont Group, which is made up of over 150 Financial Intelligence Units (FIU), would boost Guyana’s capabilities to navigate AML/CFT even further.
“We passed a Real Estate Agent and Brokerage Bill. And we passed a National Compliance Bill. Those Bills, taken together, would have met our national requirements in terms of bringing our legislation up to where we are required to be. Administratively, we also had to do a number of things to ensure we implement the relevant recommendations.”
“All of them relate to legislation. Others include, for example, the execution of the MoU we will execute this morning. Another component had to do with our membership to the Egmont Group, which we are about to accomplish. So, we have been working, over the past two years, in preparing our country for this important assessment,” Nandlall said.
The AG recalled a time, prior to 2015, when Guyana was actually sanctioned for failing to keep its AML/CFT laws updated despite the best efforts of the former PPP/C Government to pass legislative amendments.
“Those representing the money transfer agencies will tell you when persons turned up at Grace Kennedy in New York, they had to show source of income. They had to show their legitimacy in the US. There was a slew of sanctions that were imposed upon Guyana. We have not yet fully recovered from those sanctions.”
“So, we had to ensure we bring our legislative requirements up to speed. You may have observed over the last two to three months, we passed in our National Assembly a very comprehensive AML/CFT Amendment Bill. We also laid and passed some AML/CFT regulations to that substantive law,” Nandlall said.
The Egmont Group, among other things, facilitates intelligence exchange and cooperation on money laundering. There has been talk of Guyana joining the group for years, but the application to join Egmont Group was submitted this year.
A delegation from the Financial Intelligence Units (FIU) of Trinidad and Tobago and the British Virgin Islands visited Guyana in April of this year, during which the team was updated on the various pieces of legislation currently in draft to strengthen and update Guyana’s AML/CFT regime and to meet the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) international standards.
These include amendments to the principal AML/CFT Act, a Bill to create an omnibus agency as a supervisory authority for unsupervised entities, and the Real Estate Bill that was passed last month, to provide the regulatory framework for real estate agents and developers.
Guyana is scheduled to undergo an onsite evaluation and examination of its financial sector, starting next week. In preparation therefor, the Government has worked to ensure that the country’s AML/CFT framework is updated. This included implementing a number of administrative decisions and measures, as well as strengthening many aspects of its legislative architecture.
One critical element to Guyana’s fourth round of mutual evaluation was the enactment of a Real Estate Bill. The draft Real Estate Agents & Brokers Bill was prepared in consultation with the various stakeholders in the local real estate industry, and was published for public feedback, prior to its passage in the National Assembly in August.
Another initiative aimed at addressing the gaps in Guyana’s financial sector in accordance with the AML/CFT stipulations was the establishment of a Compliance Commission, that will supervise the operations of agencies and/or sectors in the country that do not have a direct regulatory body. The Compliance Commission Bill 2023 was also passed.
The Government’s anti-money laundering strategies are laid out in its five-year plan, which was released by the Attorney General’s chambers this year. According to the strategy, laws, and regulations will be developed and revised during that time, in line with international standards.
While there are existing AML/CFT laws, more can be done to strengthen or clarify the legislative framework, to better aid Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) to carry out their duties. The deadline given to complete the updates and revisions to this legal framework is by the fourth quarter of 2025. (G3)