Across the Eastern Caribbean, cross-agency and cross-border cooperation has taken center stage in the fight against evolving financial crime, as leading regional and national institutions joined forces for a groundbreaking anti-fraud initiative focused on cyber-enabled threats.
The collaborative effort was anchored by a regional webinar hosted by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), titled *“Click. Call. Drain – Disrupting Cyber Fraud Networks through Intelligence-Led Policing”*. The virtual event drew a diverse cohort of attendees, including compliance experts, leaders from regional financial institutions, financial regulators, and law enforcement officials from all member jurisdictions of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. Its core mission was to address the rapidly growing risk of cyber-facilitated financial crime and map out coordinated strategies to boost prevention, detection, incident reporting, and enforcement actions across the region.
Antigua and Barbuda sent an official delegation featuring specialists from two of the country’s key anti-crime bodies: the Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda. This participation underscores the island nation’s firm commitment to building a unified national framework to counter financial crime and cyber fraud. Representing ONDCP were senior specialists Lennique Quashie and Kebra Gardner, while the Royal Police Force was represented by ASP Wilkin Cuffy. Together, the delegation contributed actionable insights to panel and open discussions covering shifting emerging fraud patterns, practical defensive measures for financial institutions, and the critical role of cross-sector partnerships between banks, financial intelligence units, law enforcement, telecom providers, and other key stakeholders.
Following the conclusion of the webinar, ECCB leadership publicly recognized the valuable contributions from all participating delegations. The central bank reaffirmed that sustained inter-agency and cross-border collaboration is non-negotiable for strengthening the region’s collective ability to counter not just cyber-enabled fraud, but also interconnected threats including money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, and other newly emerging financial crime risks.
Lt. Col. Edward Croft, Director of Antigua and Barbuda’s ONDCP, praised the regional event as a critical step forward for collective security. He emphasized that ongoing, robust coordination between stakeholders at the national, regional, and international levels is essential to addressing evolving threats. “Cyber-enabled fraud continues to present significant challenges to our financial systems and our citizens. Effective prevention and disruption require cooperation, information sharing, public awareness, and a coordinated response among all relevant agencies,” Croft stated in remarks after the webinar. “Initiatives such as these demonstrate the value of collaboration in protecting the integrity of our financial systems and enhancing public confidence in the institutions responsible for safeguarding them.”
In closing, ONDCP extended its formal gratitude to the ECCB for organizing and facilitating the landmark regional initiative. The office also reaffirmed its long-term commitment to working hand-in-hand with partners at all levels to build Antigua and Barbuda’s institutional capacity to prevent, detect, investigate, and disrupt both traditional financial crime and modern cyber-enabled fraud threats.