In accordance with Part II – Duty of Financial Institutions, Section 5 – Conduct of Risk Assessment of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, 2018, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (the Commission) requires that its licensees and registrants self-assess their identified risk, inclusive of the Prevention of Anti-Money Laundering, Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing (AML/CFT/PF), and develop a comprehensive risk management system in order to take appropriate measures to manage and mitigate those risks.
Every financial institution shall document in writing the outcome of a risk assessment and keep it up-to-date and make it available to the Commission upon request. The risk assessment should incorporate continuous identification, measurement, monitoring and control of those risks. Additionally, every financial institution shall carry out a risk assessment: a) prior to the launch of a new product or business practice; b) prior to the use of new or developing technologies; or c) when there is a major event or development in the management and operation of the group.
To this end, all registrants and licensees of the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, with the exception of investment funds and registered investment fund managers, are required to submit documented risk assessments by Tuesday 12 November 2024. All submissions are to be forwarded to the attention of the Supervision Department at email address SUDFilings@scb.gov.bs. Failure to meet this deadline will subject the registrant/licensee to a maximum administrative penalty under FTRA 2018 Section 57.
Please note that the Commission herein provides a self-risk assessment template for completion of the self-risk assessment for the use of all registrants/licensees. To this end, any registrant/licensee who has submitted a self-risk assessment in 2024, must resubmit if the assessment is not in the SCB format or fully completed with explanations of each risk identified, risk assessment and risk mitigation/controls in the comment sections in the template. Any questions regarding this directive should be sent to the Supervision Department, Securities Commission of The Bahamas, email: SUDFilings@scb.gov.bs.
Bahamas Risk Assessment Template.xlsx