00:00Trinidad and Tobago will soon undergo evaluations from the Financial Action Task Force FATIF in
00:07March and Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi is sounding the alarm. There is a fifth round
00:12to happen. In fact, it's March this year. Take note, we're going to fail.
00:22We're going to fail under the UNC because they have not done the work to have us ready
00:30for it. That's the most probable outcome of this. I pray that there's some salvation that
00:36can come, that our entities can happen to pull it through, but it does not look positive
00:41for us. FATIF sets standards for the global financial system.
00:45I pray it's not that we go into ICRG, which is the international review group that we
00:52have to go into. Let's hope that we pass it. It does not look good right now. And the consequences
00:58of that will be grey listing again, loss of correspondent banking, and the whole cycle
01:05repeats. It was only 24 hours ago that TNT celebrated being removed from the EU's blacklist.
01:12And the opposition is not taking kindly to the UNC government claiming responsibility.
01:18What they did is that they turned up to sign treaties at the end only because we qualified to sign
01:25them. You had to do the qualification. So it's like Otto Bolden running in a race back in the
01:33day, run the whole leg, and Padra reached on the podium to put the medal on. That's effectively
01:39what has happened. So 23 laws in Global Forum we had to pass, and we had four laws we had
01:44to pass in BEPS, BC Erosion Profit Sharing. It's a matter of record that we passed all
01:54of the 23 requirements.
01:57Arawi notes in the five years the UNC was in government. They did little to advance the
02:02cause.
02:04We then promptly failed the Global Forum under Kamla Pasabi says so. Failed it. We had a
02:12P1 review in 2011, and we failed. 2011, nothing done. 2012, nothing done. 2013, nothing done.
02:202014, nothing done. 2015 up to September, nothing done.
02:25Nevertheless, the opposition senator says he welcomes the development, and he's urging
02:30the government to move swiftly to reap the benefits of TNT's new status.
02:35My point on the EU listing is, A, I want cheaper insurance. I want cheaper correspondent banking.
02:42The advocacy has to come. We call upon the Minister of Finance to be in concert with the European
02:50Union to see that we get the benefit of the PNM's hard work, which is that costs have to
02:57go down in certain areas. Identify the corresponding banks in Europe that had increased costs. Make
03:04sure that Brussels agrees that they will insist that there is a reversal of costs and charges
03:09going forward, meaning that they'll remove the tariff or the penalties for non-cooperation,
03:15and let's get the actual benefit of this law in place.
03:18Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
03:21Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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