MAJURO — An International Monetary Fund team has given the Marshall Islands high marks on its efforts to prevent money laundering.
“The mission was impressed with the progress made by the government of the Marshall Islands in the area of money laundering,” the IMF team said following a 10-day visit to Majuro that concluded Friday.
The officials, who came from both Washington and Fiji, said that the Marshall Islands has put in place a “comprehensive framework” to block money laundering in collaboration with other countries and international organizations.
The team IMF Offshore Financial Center program team was headed by Karl Driessen. He said the focus of the OFC program is on assessing standards, codes and good practices in the banking and financial sector.
The IMF team reviewed banking supervision, anti-money laundering mechanisms, and the Trust Company of the Marshall Islands–-which operates the world’s ninth largest ship registry in gross tonnage and a corporate register.
On the money laundering front, Driessen said the Marshall Islands still had “some issues to sort out,” but had made substantial progress. The Marshall Islands remains on a Financial Action Task Force blacklist of countries described as “uncooperative” on money laundering issues. Driessen said that the IMF team was not affiliated with the FATF “delisting process” but does “attempt to provide a snapshot of the progress so far in the area of money laundering.”
The IMF team said that it supported the Bank of Marshall Islands’s intent to apply for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. deposit insurance, a move that “would create a level playing field, and relieve some of the pressure on the authorities.”
On the operation of Trust Co. of the Marshall Islands, Driessen said that there are no accepted standards for company service providers, but there are what he described as “evolving good practices.” He said that a number of areas where off-shore trusts are operated, including in the Caribbean, are moving to greater transparency.
