Bahamas: Anti-Money Laundering Notice

Identification before a mandate opens

Before the first transaction, the Bahamas entity identifies the client, every natural person who owns or controls 10 per cent or more of it through any chain of holdings, and every person authorised to give instructions. An individual is recorded by full legal name, date of birth, nationality, residential address and each country of tax residence, and each of those is verified from an independent source rather than from the client alone. A company, fund or partnership is recorded by its constitutional documents, its directors or its general partner, and by an ownership chain traced to natural persons or to a listed issuer. The completed file is approved by two officers, one of whom sits outside the desk that introduced the relationship, and a file rated high risk is approved again by the Caribbean regional compliance officer.

Evidence for the source of wealth and the source of funds

The firm asks two questions and requires an answer to both. Source of wealth explains how the client came to hold what it holds: a business sold, an estate inherited, distributions from an operating group, a career of professional income. Source of funds explains how this particular subscription, deposit or facility is being paid. Each answer is corroborated in writing, by sale agreements, audited accounts, filed returns, trust deeds or distribution notices, and never by description alone. Cash is not accepted anywhere in the network. Where an account of the wealth cannot be evidenced, the relationship does not open, and the reason is recorded on the refusal log kept in Nassau.

The provisions that apply locally

The group standard applies identically in all 28 domiciles. Each jurisdiction then adds what its own regime requires of IGUAKO Private Wealth (Bahamas) Ltd., of the officers appointed to it and of the reports it has to make.

The Bahamas applies its anti-money-laundering regime to licensed investment businesses and to private trust companies alike. IGUAKO Private Wealth (Bahamas) Ltd. has a resident compliance officer and a resident money laundering reporting officer, both approved by the local financial services regulator, and it reports suspicious transactions to the jurisdiction's financial intelligence unit. The local beneficial-ownership threshold is 10 per cent, the same as the group floor. Because every client of the booking centre is a family or a family structure, source of wealth is evidenced for every principal without exception, and a politically exposed person in any family is approved by the General Counsel before booking. Records are retained for seven years, above the local minimum of five.

Monitoring output, screening results and internal reports arising on Bahamas files are held on the group register maintained by the Group Head of Financial Crime, who reports volumes, ageing and outcomes to the Compliance & Conduct Committee each quarter.

Monitoring, internal reporting and records

Every account in the network is monitored automatically each business day against the behaviour the file predicts, and an exception is worked rather than noted. A rating of low, medium or high risk is set at acceptance and drives the refresh cycle, which runs at 12, 24 or 36 months and is tracked centrally. A relationship that falls overdue for refresh is restricted rather than allowed to drift. Any member of staff who forms a suspicion reports it internally the same day, and the money laundering reporting officer appointed for the Bahamas entity decides whether it goes to the authority that receives such reports locally. The client is not told that a report has been made. Records are kept for seven years after the relationship ends.

The firm would rather decline capital than take capital it cannot explain, and it declines several approaches each year on that ground alone. The decision belongs to compliance and not to the desk that would earn the fee. It is recorded with its reasons, so that the same name is recognised if it returns through another door.