Supervision of financial crime prevention (integrity supervision) in the Caribbean Netherlands

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Financial integrity is a prerequisite for a sound financial system. Under the law, financial integrity is understood to mean, among other things, that the financial system must not be used for the purposes of money laundering or terrorism financing, for example. We exercise integrity supervision of a wide range of service providers in the Caribbean Netherlands.

This page provides an overview of the various statutory frameworks on which our integrity supervision is based. The links that follow each section take you to the page of the relevant set of laws and regulations, or to a page on which we provide additional clarification. Also, this page provides links to the sectoral integrity pages under the heading 'Sector information'. Those pages contain the policy statements we issue for each sector.

Lastly, at the bottom of this page, you will find a link to information on the relevant guidelines and recommendations issued by the FATF for countering money laundering and terrorist financing.

Contents

Legislation

Financial Markets (BES) Act (Wet financiële markten BES – Wfm BES)

The Wfm BES is the basis for integrity supervision, among other things. Unlike the Wwft BES (see next section), the provisions of the Wft BES are not specifically aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing. They seek to prevent unethical behaviour by the financial institution, its (co-)policymakers and its employees.

The Wfm BES provides that financial institutions must pursue an adequate policy for the sound conduct of their business and design their operational management so as to safeguard sound and ethical business operations. The Wfm BES defines integrity, as a minimum, as:

  • preventing conflicts of interest
  • preventing money laundering or terrorist financing, and complying with sanction regulations
  • preventing the financial institution and its employees from committing criminal offences and other breaches of the law which may damage confidence in the enterprise or the financial markets in general
  • preventing relationships with consumers, customers or other persons that may harm trust in the financial institution or in the financial markets
  • preventing other acts from being committed by the financial institution or its employees which conflict to such an extent with commonly accepted practices that they may seriously harm trust in the financial institution or in the financial markets

The full text of the Wfm BES can be found here.

Financial Markets (BES) Decree (Bfm BES) and Financial Markets (BES) Regulation 2012 (Rfm BES)

The Wfm BES provides that further rules may be laid down by order in council or by ministerial regulation. The Financial Markets (BES) Decree and the Financial Markets (BES) Regulation 2012 represent such further rules. Below are some of the subjects they regulate.

SIRA

Under the Bfm BES, a financial institution must ensure that it has a systematic integrity risk analysis (SIRA) in place and uses it as a basis for its policies, procedures and measures. More information on the SIRA can be found here. Note: this document was prepared under Dutch law, but the SIRA to be prepared by financial institutions in the Caribbean Netherlands is similar to the SIRA to be prepared by Dutch institutions. This document will be reviewed in the foreseeable future.

Incidents

A financial institution must have policies and procedures in place for dealing with incidents. An incident is defined as any behaviour or event posing a serious threat to a financial institution’s ethical business operations.

Incidents must be reported to DNB immediately at tfc.bes@dnb.nl.

The full text of the Financial Markets (BES) Decree can be found here. The full text of the Financial Markets (BES) Regulation can be found here.

Payer information in money transfers

The Financial Markets (BES) Regulation 2012 (Rfm BES 2012) contains provisions regarding the traceability of money transfers to prevent, detect and investigate money laundering and terrorist financing. Traceability of money transfers is an important tool in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Credit institutions, money transaction offices and electronic money institutions must provide the following information on the payer and the payee in the case of money transfers:

  • full name
  • address or place and date of birth of the payer or their customer identification number
  • account number (in the absence of the payer's account number, this is replaced by a unique identifier allowing the money transfer to be traced back to the payer)

Credit institutions, money transaction offices and electronic money institutions must check whether received payments include the correct payer information. If the information is not provided, they must refuse that payment. If payments originating from the same payment service provider often lack the correct information, termination of the relationship with that payment service provider may be considered. In that case, the service provider must also consider reporting an unusual transaction.

Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing (BES) Act (Wwft BES)

The Wwft BES is the act that aims to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. It applies to financial institutions and service providers in the Caribbean Netherlands, including credit institutions, life insurers, money transaction offices and trust offices. The regulatory framework for managing the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing is risk-based. This means that the Wwft BES prescribes, using open standards, what institutions are expected to do to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Financial institutions must take measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, tailoring the intensity of those measures to the risks posed by specific types of customers, products, services, transactions and delivery channels, as well as countries or geographical areas.

Under the Wwft BES, financial service providers must comply with, among others, the following requirements:

  • conducting customer due diligence
  • reporting unusual transactions

We supervise a large group of Wwft BES service providers.

Duty to report unusual transactions

Financial and other institutions that, in a professional capacity or on a commercial basis, provide financial or other services specifically listed in the Wwft BES must notify any unusual transactions to FIU-NL. The Wwft BES also lists indicators to determine what unusual transactions exactly are.

The full text of the Wwft BES can be found here.

We have issued a Good Practices Wwft BES document that provides guidance in complying with the Wwft BES.

Wwft (BES) Decree and Wwft (BES) Regulation

The Wwft BES provides that further rules may be laid down by order in council or by ministerial regulation. The Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing (BES) Decree (Wwft BES Decree) and the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing (BES) Regulation (Wwft BES Regulation) represent such further rules.
The full text of the Wwft (BES) Decree can be found here, and the full text of the Wwft (BES) Regulation can be found here.

Sanctions regulations/ Sanctions Act 1977 (Sw)

Political, economic, financial and other types of sanctions are imposed nationally and internationally on countries/jurisdictions, groups/entities and individuals.

Sanctions are political instruments in the foreign and security policies of the United Nations, the European Union and national governments. They are enforcement instruments employed in response to violations of international law or human rights, or to encourage policy changes where statutory or democratic principles are being violated. Sanctions also are a strong weapon in the fight against terrorism.

There are several types of (financial) sanctions: an order to freeze the funds and assets of designated persons or entities, a prohibition on making funds available, directly or indirectly, to such persons or entities, and a prohibition or restriction on providing financial services. These sanctions are intended to prevent undesirable transactions (embargoes) and to combat terrorism.

There are several sanctions lists, such as EU Decisions and Regulations, Decisions by the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs based on the Regulation on Sanctions for the Suppression of Terrorism (Sanctieregeling terrorisme) 2007-II (the “national terrorism list”) or UN Security Council Resolutions.

We monitor compliance with the Sanctions Act 1977. The full text of the Sanctions Act 1977 can be found here. The Bfm BES and the Wwft BES also contain provisions aimed at ensuring that financial institutions and service providers organise their operational management in such a way that they do not violate sanctions regulations.

Reporting a sanctions hit

If the identity of a relationship of a financial service provider matches that of an individual or legal entity listed in the sanctions regulations (known as a hit), the service provider will immediately freeze the available assets of this relationship, refrain from providing further services and report this to DNB without delay. To this end, the reporting template created for this purpose must be used.

The reporting template must be completed in full and sent by secure email connection (sancties@dnb.nl) to DNB.

Pensions BES Act

Integrity is a prerequisite for a healthy financial system. This is why integrity risk management at pension funds is enshrined in the Pensions (BES) Act (Pensioenwet BES - Pw BES). Under this Act, pension funds are obliged to structure their organisation in such a way as to safeguard sound and ethical operational management.

The full text of the Pensions (BES) Act can be found here.

More information on the supervision of pension funds in the Caribbean Netherlands can be found here.

Our policy statements

We have issued a Good Practices Wwft BES document that provides guidance in complying with the Wwft BES.

Other legislation

Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

The G7 has set up the FATF to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing internationally. Member countries, including the Netherlands, must comply with standards set by the task force. The FATF periodically evaluates whether a member country's laws and regulations meet the requirements of the FAFT standards and whether the country is effective in countering money laundering and terrorist financing. The Netherlands' compliance with FATF standards was evaluated in 2021.

Read more about the FATF’s objectives and follow other relevant links here. Note: the reference to the DNB Guideline on the Wwft and Sw on this page does not apply to service providers in the Caribbean Netherlands.

In addition, the FATF can place countries that have serious deficiencies on the “black” or “grey” list. In particular, the grey list is regularly updated. We expect financial institutions subject to our supervision to take account of the specific circumstances of the countries on this list when deciding on the necessary AML/CFT measures. Under Sector news on DNB’s website, you will find the latest about the FATF alert lists.