On January 18, the European Union published Regulation 2024/163 in the Official Journal of the EU (Regulation). The Regulation removes the Cayman Islands from the list of high-risk jurisdictions (EU AML List). The Regulation was adopted on December 12, 2023, and came into effect today, 7 February, 2024. The Regulation formalizes the decision of the FATF, made at the last European Commission plenary session in October 2023, to remove Cayman from the ‘gray list’.
In its text, the Regulation confirms that:
“The Commission has reviewed the progress of the Cayman Islands [ ] in addressing their strategic deficiencies. Those countries are identified as high-risk third countries in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675, but were removed from the FATF list of ‘Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring’ in October 2023.
The FATF welcomed the significant progress made by the Cayman Islands [ ] in improving their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regimes and noted that these countries have established legal and regulatory frameworks to meet the commitments in their respective action plans on the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF. The Cayman Islands [ ] are no longer subject to the FATF’s monitoring process under its ongoing global AML/CFT compliance process and will continue to work with their FATF-style regional bodies to further strengthen their AML/CFT regimes.
The Cayman Islands [ ] have strengthened the effectiveness of their AML/CFT regimes and addressed technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in their action plans on the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF. The Commission’s assessment based on available information leads to the conclusion that the Cayman Islands [ ] no longer have strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regimes. Therefore, it is appropriate to exclude the Cayman Islands
[ ] from the table in point I of the Annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675.”