Senate Approves Changes to Financial Services Commission Act

The Senate on Thursday (Dec. 2) approved amendments to the Financial Services Commission Act, which will among things, enhance the country’s ability to fight money laundering.
Leader of Government Business in the Upper House, Senator Burchell Whiteman, who piloted the legislation, explained that the changes would enable the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to satisfy international obligations and become party to multilateral instruments.
Furthermore, he informed, the amendments would prove valuable to the country in terms of its anti money laundering efforts and enhance the FSC’s internal capability to carry out its general supervisory mandate through cooperation with its overseas counterpart.
Senator Whiteman said the Bill made clear, the range of regulatory action, which may be taken by the FSC where it found a entity, which it regulates, to have contravened a provision of the Money Laundering Prevention Act or its regulations.
The amendments come in the wake of a Cabinet decision to amend several acts dealing with the regulation of financial institutions in the island and are based on the recommendations by the Legislative Taskforce on Financial Crime, which was established to propose legislative changes to enhance the fight against money laundering.
The FSC Bill is part of a package of legislation inclusive of: the Bank of Jamaica Act, the Banking Act, the Financial Institutions Act and the Building Societies Act, which collectively seek to address deficiencies in the existing laws to fight money laundering and to ensure compliance with international anti-money laundering standards and treaty obligations.