Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo says the Government is moving to strengthen Trinidad and Tobago’s financial system against crime, corruption, and terrorist financing.
As he piloted the Miscellaneous Provisions (Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Compliance) Bill 2025 and the Counter-Proliferation Financing Bill 2025 in the Lower House on Friday, the Minister explained that are critical to meeting international obligations and protecting the nation’s financial reputation.
“These two vital bills provide strong protection against both crime and criminality. With their passage, Trinidad and Tobago will have a robust legislative framework to properly deal with the proceeds of crime, including cross-border activities and the kind of white-collar crime that has already robbed this nation of billions of dollars and destroyed thousands of lives. Mr. Speaker, we promised the people that we would tackle these issues head-on. Today, with these bills, that promise made is now a promise kept.”
Minister Tancoo highlighted the importance of the upcoming fifth-round mutual evaluation by the FATF, scheduled for March 2026. He reminded that failure to meet FATF standards previously placed Trinidad and Tobago at risk of being “grey-listed.”
“We cannot go back down that road again. As Minister of Finance, as a representative of this Government, Mr. Speaker, I want to give the assurance to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago that this Government, under the leadership of the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar, is taking every possible action to achieve full legal compliance and to ensure that our financial systems are never again compromised by the failures that existed before April 2025.”