What is Dominican Financial Services Unit (FSU)? Dominican Financial Services Unit (FSU) Review, Features

The Financial Services Unit (FSU) is the sole regulator and money laundering supervisory body for the non-bank financial sector in Dominica.

About the Dominican Financial Services Unit (FSU)

The Financial Services Unit (FSU) is a division of the Ministry of Finance whose purview covers Dominica's financial sector, with the exception of commercial banking and securities operations.

The Financial Services Unit, with support from the Ministry of Finance, is staffed by experienced professionals and is led by a Director and a team of examiners on a day-to-day basis.

With the establishment of the Financial Services Unit in 2008, supervision of the non-bank financial sector has been greatly strengthened, which is an important factor in ensuring the safety and soundness of the sector. It is expected that as the Financial Services Unit develops an effective supervisory system, consumer confidence will increase accordingly, thereby benefiting all parties involved.

In 2011, the Financial Supervisory Authority was established under Section 7 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The Financial Services Unit aims to ensure that each financial institution conducts a risk assessment, thereby developing policies, procedures and controls to prevent/mitigate the identified money laundering/financial risks.

Confidence and stability in the financial sector are vital to the health of the entire economy. This is even more important in today's turbulent economic times, so the role of financial services stocks becomes even more important.

Function

Money laundering is primarily the process by which direct and/or indirect proceeds of crime are used to conceal their true origin and ownership through financial transactions and/or institutions, while terrorist financing is the use of funds to commit or support terrorist acts.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an intergovernmental body that was established at the 1989 G7 Summit in Paris, initially to review and develop measures to combat money laundering. The FATF has developed a series of recommendations that are considered the international standard for combating money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Dominica is part of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), an organization of countries and regions in the Caribbean Basin that have agreed to implement common anti-money laundering measures. In addition, Dominica, as part of the CFATF, has agreed to adopt and implement the CFATF 40+9 Special Recommendations.