Fintech 2026

BAHAMAS Law and Practice Contributed by: Dwayne Whylly, Kamala Richardson-Deal and Nastassia Rigby-Rodriguez, Glinton Sweeting O’Brien

tronic money service providers under the PSA; issuing standards/guidelines; conducting controls/audits and imposing sanctions where necessary. It also oversees the Sand Dollar, The Bahamas’ digital currency, under the Central Bank of The Bahamas Act, 2020. The Compliance Securities Commission ensures compliance under the Financial Transactions Report - ing Act, 2018 (FTRA) and is responsible for AML/CFT supervision of “financial institutions” within FTRA that are not otherwise regulated by the Central Bank, the Securities Commission, the Insurance Commission of The Bahamas or the Gaming Board of The Bahamas. 2.3 Compensation Models There are no restrictions or prescriptions on the fees that are charged by industry participants pursuant to the relevant legislation, ie, the DARE Act for DABs and the PSA for electronic money service providers. The DARE Act 2024 does, however, require that digital asset businesses have a schedule of fees and that fees are properly disclosed to their customers. 2.4 Variations Between the Regulation of Fintech and Legacy Players The regulation of the legacy players does not differ significantly from that of the fintech industry. The Central Bank and Securities Commission regulate both legacy players and fintech industry participants. The regulatory frameworks and approach to enforce - ment are very similar. Prudential restrictions, filing and reporting obligations and enforcement mechanisms differ by a matter of degree rather than in kind. 2.5 Regulatory Sandbox The Securities Commission established a fintech hub in The Bahamas through the launch of its Financial Innovation and Technology Link (SCB FinTLink) in October 2019. SCB FinTLink allows for the Securities Commission to engage with the public and industry to address various fintech issues and assist industry providers in navigating the regulatory regime. Through SCB FinTLink, and generally under the DARE Act 2024, the Securities Commission has taken a “sand - box lite” approach to the onboarding of new DABs. This approach focuses on the fitness and propriety of principals and compliance with internal controls of good governance and AML/CFT/counter-proliferation

financing (CPF) requirements, while setting regula - tory conditions, ie, regulatory capital and insurance requirements, by reference to and in proportion with the type of proposed business activities. 2.6 Jurisdiction of Regulators Each regulator’s jurisdiction is delineated based on their core purpose, namely: • the Central Bank largely oversees the regulation of banking and trust matters, as well as payment service providers, including money transmission businesses and electronic money service providers • the Insurance Commission oversees regulation of the insurance industry as a whole; • the Securities Commission largely regulates the remaining financial service section, inclusive of capital markets business, (non-bank) financial and corporate services, digital assets, carbon credit trading and investment funds; and • the Compliance Securities Commission is respon - sible for matters AML, CFT and CPL matters in respect of businesses not otherwise regulated. As such, the remit of each regulator’s reach is limited to persons operating within their regulatory environ - ment, either unregulated or pursuant to a licence. Where a person is licensed by two regulators, one typically acts as primary regulator and the other as secondary regulator, depending on that person’s core business. Additionally, the Central Bank, the Insurance Commis - sion and the Securities Commission have each been delegated authority to administer the implementation of the automatic exchange of financial account infor - mation under CRS and FATCA in respect of Report - ing Financial Institutions they regulate. Furthermore, the Central Bank, the Insurance Commission and the Securities Commission each have responsibility of enforcing compliance with AML/CFT/CPF obligations by the entities they regulate. As such, the above-men - tioned regulators tend to co-ordinate efforts in admin - istering and enforcing compliance with AML/CFT/CPF and automatic exchange of financial account informa - tion obligations.

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