Antigua and Barbuda’s Cabinet recently convened for a dedicated briefing on the nation’s full-scale preparedness efforts ahead of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) Mutual Evaluation scheduled for September 2027, a high-stakes audit that will rigorously assess the country’s adherence to the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 40 core recommendations for combating illicit financial activity. The in-depth presentation was delivered by Colonel Edward Croft, Director of the Office of National Drug and Crime Prevention (ONDCP), acting on behalf of the National Oversight Committee on Financial Action (NOCFA), the multi-stakeholder body leading the national preparatory campaign. During the session, Croft walked Cabinet members through key milestones already achieved in the lead-up to the 2027 assessment, mapped out evolving national exposure to money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing risks, and laid out the non-negotiable priority actions required to close existing gaps before international evaluators arrive. The formal preparatory timeline shared with Cabinet sets a firm deadline of February 27, 2027, for the submission of the mandatory Technical Compliance Questionnaire, followed by a May 2027 cutoff for all documentation related to the national effectiveness review of the country’s anti-financial crime framework. Croft also laid bare persistent bottlenecks slowing progress across government bodies, including limited operational capacity in frontline agencies, fragmented information gathering systems, and inconsistent cross-ministerial coordination that threatens to delay critical submissions. To resolve these barriers, the ONDCP head outlined urgent unmet needs across the ecosystem: targeted technical and administrative staffing boosts, specialized industry training for financial crime compliance staff, expanded capabilities for the national financial intelligence unit, and targeted legislative amendments to bring existing rules fully in line with FATF global standards. In response to the briefing, Cabinet issued binding directives for all relevant government ministries, departments, and competent authorities to submit a full inventory of their specific requirements for meeting their respective evaluation obligations, including all requested data, supporting documentation, additional personnel, technical infrastructure, and proposed legislative adjustments, within a specified internal timeline. The governing body also formally approved the creation of a time-bound National Readiness Committee, to operate under NOCFA’s existing governance structure, with a clear mandate to streamline inter-agency collaboration, resolve emerging bottlenecks before they cause delays, and deliver a consolidated national readiness status report alongside a fully costed corrective action plan to Cabinet for formal sign-off. Senior government officials emphasized that the 2027 CFATF evaluation represents a landmark national priority, as a successful outcome will protect Antigua and Barbuda’s reputation as a compliant, transparent jurisdiction for international financial services, while a poor performance could trigger punitive global financial access restrictions. The Cabinet reaffirmed the government’s full commitment to allocating the necessary resources and oversight to ensure the nation’s anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and counter-proliferation financing framework is fully validated as effective by independent CFATF assessors in 2027.
Cabinet Reviews Antigua and Barbuda’s Readiness for 2027 Review of Efforts to Fight Financial Crime
