Attorney General, Sen. Hon. Ryan Pinder, led debate in the senate on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information [Amendment] Bill. This bill was tabled and is being debated in a effort to become compliant with the guidelines of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD].
The Attorney General told senators, “we are committed to closing all remaining gaps expeditiously and to seek a redetermination of our status in the shortest possible time. Again, remedying the comedy of errors of the prior administration. Madame President to give you some context, the deficiencies of the European Union that they identified primarily lie in the reporting portal and the methodology that was put in place. The former FNM government looked to put the substance reporting framework in the Department of Inland Revenue. This method was ineffective and presented many problems with the actual administration of the reporting itself.”
Pinder also said that the government is cautiously optimistic of a re-rating for recommendations 8 and 15 by the Financial Action Task Force [FATF]. He said this would result, “in The Bahamas being compliant or largely compliant in forty of the forty recommendations by the Financial Action Task Force.”
