The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) is an organisation of thirty states of the Caribbean Basin, loosely modelled on the FATF (comprised of OECD members) which have agreed to implement common countermeasures to address the problem of criminal money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The CFATF Secretariat is hosted by the Government of Trinidad & Tobago.

Relinquishing his role as CFATF Chairman, Minister Sears said it was imperative that The Bahamas continue its lead in regard to being at the forefront of international standards in anti-money laundering efforts and combating the financing of terrorists. Specifically, ”..we must ensure that our legislation keeps track of the changing typologies used by money launderers and persons who finance terrorists acts. We must continue to interact meaningfully with our international partners and encourage capacity building.”

During his tenure as President, Mr. Sears actively promoted a forum on money laundering under the auspices of the United Nations, hopefully to produce a UN Convention on Money Laundering. It is anticipated that such a Convention would allow the establishment of international standards of money laundering that would be applied equally to all nations. Importantly, this would allow all member countries of the UN the right to participate in the making of the rules and ensure the even application of such.

Highlights of his chairmanship included the promotion of enhanced international cooperation between CFATF members and their international counterparts and the provision of technical assistance. On the latter, Minister Sears points out that this is based on the concept that “we live in an interdependent world and in order to defend our respective sovereign space, we need to ensure that every area of the world has adequate capacity to withstand the menace of money laundering and financing terrorism.”

The feisty Sir Ronald may bring a more confrontational tone to the CFATF. Just last month he led a group of eight nations at the WTO headquarters in Geneva in an attempt to persuade the organisation not to adopt recent OECD and FATF directives. Sir Ronald expressed concern at the cost that smaller jurisdictions are paying to comply with these directives, and alarm at the way in which the larger economies are dominating the decision making process in international financial bodies such as the WTO and OECD.

"The world has entered a dangerous phase, it is one in which, despite the international problems that confront the global community and the logic that such international problems demand international solutions, a number of larger and more powerful states have abrogated to themselves the task of making rules and imposing them on others through either threat, or the impositions, of sanctions", Sanders told the Committee on Trade in Financial Services.

"The sovereign right of states to regulate and manage their crucial financial services sector is being challenged continually by some countries who appear to have usurped the role of international organizations such as the WTO in global governance", Sir Ronald continued, stating that these countries had "no legitimacy" to act in such a way.

Sanders argued that the protectionism of the financial sectors of the larger countries was harmful to non-members of the two organisations, and attacked the "coercive methods they have adopted (which) challenge a basic tenet of the WTO - namely multilateralism, which includes Most Favoured Nation treatment as well as open consultation between WTO members".

The document presented to the Committee by Sir Ronald proposed to "promote the greater inclusiveness of small states in the process of formulating these standards by placing them under the umbrella of the WTO instead of in the bosom of plurilateral organizations with limited membership." It continued: "We propose that the inclusiveness and international legitimacy of financial standards, universally negotiated and universally applied, can be accomplished best through the provisions related to Domestic Regulation under Article VI of the GATS".

Sir Ronald has also been to the fore in attacking the attempts of the US to throttle small offshore jurisdictions which have been making a living out of providing gambling sites to US citizens, obtaining permission from the WTO to bring a complaint against the US.

The US Congress is close to passing a bill which would criminalise such activities, but the government of Antigua and Barbuda recently announced that it had filed its first submission to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Panel.

"We are pleased that our case is proceeding according to the schedule set by the panel," said Sir Ronald. "We look forward to hearing the response of the United States. As a small country with very little in the way of viable exports, the gaming industry represents a vital area of our development of electronic commerce for a global market. We believe very strongly in our case under the law."

Antigua and Barbuda is basing its claim on the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The government is arguing that the US is violating its commitment to fellow WTO members under GATS by prohibiting the provision of cross-border gambling and betting services.

Sir Ronald and his Antiguan materfamilias aren't just trouble-makers. Earlier this year, Antigua and Barbuda received the highest possible praise from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force over its anti-money laundering policies. A CFATF report concluded that the legislative framework implemented by the jurisdiction is in total compliance with international standards in addition to being properly enforced. In order to gain this distinction, 40 FATF conditions had to be satisfied, plus 19 CFATF rules and 25 FATF Non-co-operative countries and territories' criteria.

Sir Ronald pointed out that the process of transforming the culture of compliance was painful, especially given the territory's reputation as a haven for dirty money in the 1990s. As a consequence many banks left the country due to the increase scrutiny they were facing, and the jurisdiction now has only 15 banks compared with over 60 in the mid 1990s. However, Sanders feels that the nation is the better for it, and the legislation introduced has made income from the banking sector far more stable.

"That means we'll keep these businesses longer, we'll get the revenue from them longer, employment will continue longer. With dirty money, either the law catches up with them or they collapse themselves, and there's no predictability." he affirmed.