The lack of adequate, accurate and timely beneficial ownership information enables money laundering (“ML”) and terrorism financing (“TF”) as criminals often exploit corporate structures to hide illicit activities and obscure their identities. The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), through its 4th Round Mutual Evaluations, identified countries’ insufficient effectiveness of combatting the misuse of legal persons for such financial crimes. As a result, FATF agreed on more robust global standards for beneficial ownership. FATF Recommendation 24 was revised to ensure greater transparency of beneficial ownership of legal persons which requires countries to ensure that competent authorities have efficient access to adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on the true owners of companies.
As the supervisory authority of the securities market, the Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission (“TTSEC”) aims to strengthen its beneficial ownership regime to combat ML and TF. On October 14, 2024, the Miscellaneous Provisions (Trustees, Exchequer and Audit Act, the Minister of Finance (Incorporation) Act, Proceeds of Crime, Income Tax, Companies, Partnerships, Securities, Tax Information Exchange Agreements, the Non-Profit Organisations and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters) Act, 2024 (“Act No. 1 of 2024”) was proclaimed by the President. This resulted in revisions to the Securities Act, Chapter 83:02 of the Laws of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The amended provisions require reporting entities to provide the TTSEC with beneficial ownership information.