Another article in our series about bank de-risking of casinos and gambling businesses in the Caribbean and other countries

1. Despite years’ of forewarning Caribbean gambling
operators appear caught out by bank de-risking
2017-05-23
PREVIOUSLY:
18-Dec-2015 20-Dec-2015 04-May-2016 11-Oct-2016
According to www.barbadostoday.bb it seems Bajun slot machine operators are
experiencing the de-risking problems we have long identified.
Until such time as the gaming machine industry is properly regulated and gaming machine
operators have verifiable AML/CFT governance standards then de-risking will remain an
issue. Governance Associates provides expert services to reduce the risks of de-risking.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Cash block
slot machine operators barred from making deposits
Added by Colville Mounsey on May 23, 2017.
Saved under Local News
Slot machine operators here are having a cash problem – too much of it and nowhere to deposit
it.

2. Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite today disclosed that commercial banks are refusing to accept
large amounts of cash from these businesses because of the labelling of Barbados as a money
laundering haven.
Brathwaite said the intake at these businesses was being classified as the proceeds of gambling.
“These are legitimate businesses but someone sits outside of the region and makes a decision that
‘this is gambling, therefore we are not touching it’. So you have as I saw a couple days ago, a
legitimate business sent me a note on WhatsApp with lots of cash on a table saying, ‘AG help me,
we don’t know what to do with this; our bank account has been deactivated and we are paying
our staff with cash’, and they can’t operate like that,” Brathwaite said this morning at the opening
ceremony of a three-day anti-money laundering workshop at the Radisson Aquatica Hotel.
It has become increasingly common for large banks and other financial institutions to restrict or
terminate relationships with categories of customers they believe pose a high risk of money
laundering, terrorist financing or other forms of crime, according to the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body which promotes effective implementation of legal,
regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and
other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
This has become a severe problem in correspondent banking where global banks have been
closing down relationships with many of their respondent banks, especially in emerging
economies, partly for commercial reasons, but mainly because these smaller banks cannot always
meet today’s higher financial crime standards, the FATF said.
In addition, commercial banks are also mandated to consider whether or not their clients operate
in, or are subjected to, a regulatory environment, which is internationally recognized as adequate
in the fight against money laundering.
Brathwaite said it was unfair to paint everyone with the broad money laundering brush, while
restricting people from making a living legitimately.
“If you take away ability to function and to function legally, then what else will we do as a region?
The criminal element will take over. We have gone back to days where suitcases of cash are being
moved around because people cannot bank legitimately.
“Here in Barbados we have the issue of our slot machine operators, these businesses have been
around for 30 years and employing hundreds of persons and waking up one day and being told
that we cannot bank with you anymore,” he lamented.
In a 2016 report by the US State Department, Barbados was named among a number of countries
which Washington regarded as major money laundering havens.
Braithwaite last month dismissed that report as misleading, stating it was not supported by the
intelligence.
“Criminal activity in Barbados is immaterial as far as the international community is concerned.
Funds, which may be laundered in Barbados, are minuscule when measured on the scale of
international laundering. Barbados is not a world financial centre and, therefore, any larger than
usual financial transaction which takes place here will receive immediate attention, both here and
abroad. Large-scale launderers know that the place to hide a tree is in the forest. Barbados does
not fit that bill,” he stressed at the time.
colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb
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