The Cabinet Office has launched separate consultations on two new Bills designed to reinforce the Isle of Man’s defences against financial crime, including anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) measures.

The need for the proposed legislation was identified during preparations for a major external inspection of the Island’s effectiveness in meeting the latest international standards in AML/CFT. The assessment will be carried out next year by MONEYVAL (the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism).

The first piece of legislation, the Financial Intelligence Unit Bill, creates in statute a separate Financial Intelligence Unit with enhanced information gathering powers. At present intelligence work is done alongside investigations within the police’s Financial Crimes Unit, but the international norm is for these two functions to be separated.

The second piece of legislation, the Terrorism and Crime (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, makes a number of detailed and technical changes to existing AML/CFT law.

Further information on both consultations can be found in the consultations section of the Government website -
https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/government/government-consultations/.