JAMAICA Law and Practice Contributed by: M. Georgia Gibson Henlin CD and KC, Henlin Gibson Henlin
1. Trends and Overview 1.1 Sanctions Market
• insurance; • securities; • real estate; • accountants; and • designated non-financial businesses and profes - sionals. Additionally, the effects of the sanctions regulations extend to the tourism and trade sector, for example when Jamaica was grey listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), notifications were sent to interna - tional financial and other institutions to take caution when transacting or doing business with Jamaica, which in turn made transactions more expensive, and There is no sanctions sector per se in Jamaica, which adopts the UN Sanctions List. Instead of imposing sanctions ourselves, Jamaica adopts the UN Sanc - tions list, for example, through orders made by the Supreme Court. 1.4.2 Scope of Sanctions A “business in the regulated sector” is subject to the laws under the POCA. However, the term “business” must not be taken in the strictest sense, or what the “ordinary man” would envision it to be. The Fourth Schedule of POCA explains that business includes two types of institutions. • A financial institution – an entity which is respon - sible for the development and implementation of anti-money laundering, or terrorism financing prevention policies and procedures, which would govern the group of companies the entity is a part of. • A designated non-financial institution – a person who is not primarily engaged in carrying on a financial business. Note, a person refers to both a company, which is a legal person, and a regular individual who is a natural person. less favourable. 1.4 Overview 1.4.1 Types of Sanctions The scope of the Terrorism Prevention Act (TPA) is wider than POCA as it extends to entities and financial institutions. Section 2 outlines that an entity is a per - son, group, trust, partnership or fund or an unincorpo -
There is no sanctions sector per se in Jamaica. This is because it does not have an environment that is welcoming or otherwise facilitative of activities that attract sanctions. There are now, however, more noti - fications from the regulator in relation to persons who are on the UN Sanctions List. 1.2 Key Trends The implementation of the Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) Regime was at the forefront for improving Jamaica’s sanction regime in 2023. However, in Octo - ber 2024, the government of Jamaica indicated that this plan was no longer a priority as the existing laws and regimes were strong enough to address suspi - cious sources of an individual’s wealth. Reference was made to the UK Parliamentary assessment which revealed that only nine UWOs had been issued since its introduction four years previously, despite the rise in money laundering activities. Additionally, for UWOs to be implemented, constitutional amendments would have to be made, which would take time. On the other hand, the head of investigations at the Financial Investigations Division (FID) stated that the imposition of UWOs would address the issue cur - rently being faced – that criminals are exploiting gaps in the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) as the legisla - tion enacted in 2007 is not effective in combatting today’s exploitations. He believes that UWOs would assist in dealing with the 150 active money launder - ing cases, some of which concern assets exceeding JMD70 million. For now, the plan appears to be to continue strength - ening the recommendations given by FATF. 1.3 Key Industries The regulated sector in general is impacted by the sanctions regime. However, the areas of the industrial sector which are particularly affected by the AML and
CTF legislation include: • banking and finance; • money services businesses; • casinos and gaming;
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