Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) Plenary 2025

Senator the Honourable Kim Wilkerson, JP, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice led the delegation to the CFATF Plenary held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago from the 25th-30th May, 2025 which adopted the 4th Round Mutual Evaluation Reports (MERs) of Curaçao and St. Maarten, respectively. The MERs are produced from a mutual “peer review” system to determine the levels of compliance by the jurisdictions being assessed with the international AML/ATF measures. Each report separately analyzes the level of compliance with the FATF Forty Recommendations and the level of effectiveness of the AML/ATF systems of each of the jurisdictions, and also and provides recommendations on how their respective systems could be strengthened. The MERs of Curaçao and St. Maarten constituted the final two reports to be adopted for the 4th Round of Mutual Evaluation. While the FATF commenced its 5th Round in 2025, CFATF’s 5th Round of assessments start in 2026. In light of this, there were also discussions in several working group meetings in respect of matters which will impact the upcoming 5th Round for various countries, including Bermuda.