WILLEMSTAD — During its plenary meeting of October 17^th the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) concluded that the Curaçao repentance regulation doesn’t contravene the four basic principles of their guideline of October 2010. This means the threat of being listed in the International Country Risk Guide no longer exists – according to a press report from the Curaçao government. On its website FATF reports ‘we aren’t taking any further action at this moment’.

Curaçao is a member of the FATF through the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The purpose of the FATF is to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. The organization scrutinized the repentance regulation last May. The Secretariat of the FATF presented an interim report that was discussed during the plenary meeting in June 2012 in Rome. In the interim report the Secretariat expressed its concerns about the effect of the repentance regulation and requested clarification. “Curaçao then commissioned itself to remove these concerns. Curaçao was given time to restore possible defaults and the definite judgment on the regulation was postponed to October. On September 7, 2012 the ministers of Finance and Justice revised the existing policy rules regarding criminal prosecution upon repentance. The Secretariat put the new policy rules and other information to a thorough test. This test led to an updated report that was discussed and approved during the plenary meeting in Paris on October 17”, according to the press report.