Belize Achieves World’s Highest AML Compliance Standards

Belize has been recognized as the global leader in compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

A recent evaluation conducted by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) assessed the country’s adherence to the 40 official FATF recommendations, which serve as international benchmarks for combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

The review rated Belize as fully compliant with 38 of the 40 recommendations, while the remaining two were rated as largely compliant. This exceptional result makes Belize only the second country worldwide to achieve either compliant or largely compliant ratings across all 40 FATF recommendations on its first attempt.

With these results, Belize now holds the distinction of having the strongest technical compliance ratings in the world. It surpasses Qatar, the previous record-holder, which achieved 32 compliant and eight largely compliant ratings.

This achievement marks a remarkable turnaround for Belize, which faced significant challenges following its 2011 mutual evaluation. At that time, the CFATF publicly grey-listed the country, citing deficiencies in its AML framework. The grey-listing led to the loss of correspondent banking relationships for several Belizean banks, severely impacting their ability to conduct international transactions.

Andrew Dalip, an AML lawyer who played a key role in preparing Belize for its evaluation, attributed this success to years of dedicated efforts by the country.

“Belize’s journey [is] a true Cinderella story and a testament to all that can be achieved by small countries through holistic planning, national cooperation and smart work,” Dalip wrote on LinkedIn.

Reflecting on the process, Dalip described his involvement as a career highlight. “It has been an immense privilege and a career highlight to have supported Belize over the last two and a half years in preparing for and navigating all stages of its mutual evaluation,” he stated.

Belize’s achievement underscores the potential for small nations to excel on the global stage with effective planning, national unity, and targeted efforts to meet international compliance standards.

By fLEXI tEAM