FIU GUYANA JOINS EGMONT GROUP

Guyana is now a member of the Egmont Group, an international association comprising Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) from around the world that, among other things, facilitates intelligence exchange and cooperation on money laundering.

This was revealed in a statement from the Attorney General Chambers and Legal Affairs Ministry on Saturday.
“On February 1, 2024, Guyana’s Financial Intelligence Unit’s application for membership of the Egmont Group or International Association of Financial Intelligence Units was granted at the organisation’s recent meeting in Malta,” the missive stated.
In addition to Guyana, the FIUs of Oman, Kenya, and Timor-Leste were also inducted into the association.
Consequently, the Egmont Group now has 174 countries that can cooperate via a secure web portal to exchange intelligence on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) matters.

There has been talk of Guyana joining the group for years, but the application to join the organisation was only submitted in 2023.
At the Egmont Group’s recent meeting in Malta, Guyana was represented by the Director of the local Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Matthew Langevine.
Guyana’s application was sponsored by the FIUs of Trinidad and Tobago and the British Virgin Islands and was supported by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).
Since taking office in 2020, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has made significant progress in its anti-corruption efforts. To this end, it has implemented robust measures to strengthen its anti-corruption framework including improving its AML/CFT architecture.
A delegation from the FIUs of Trinidad and Tobago and the British Virgin Islands visited Guyana in April of last year, during which they were 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 key 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 August, to provide the regulatory framework for real estate agents and developers.

In September 2023, Guyana underwent an onsite evaluation and examination of its financial sector by CFATF. A critical element of Guyana’s fourth round of mutual evaluation was the enactment of the 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, before 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.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, had disclosed during his 2024 Budget debate presentation last month that the CFATF review was successful.
The Government’s anti-money laundering strategies are laid out in its five-year plan, which was released by the Attorney General’s Chambers last 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 (LEAs) to carry out their duties. The deadline given to complete the updates and revisions to this legal framework is the fourth quarter of 2025.