The Attorney General’s Chambers says it has worked with the government to take a strategic approach to ensure the country’s legislation is up-to-date. This is to ensure Saint Lucia isn’t a hub for facilitating illegal financial transactions. Permanent Secretary in the AG’s Chambers, Juliana Alfed, says the office had much work to do since its last meeting.

“We’ve had quite a bit of legislative amendments undertaken, we’ve had a lot of consultation, and very importantly, we’ve undertaken a national risk assessment,” Alfred informed. She disclosed that “[Saint Lucia’s] last NRA was done sometime in 2019, and we completed the recent one in 2022. This risk assessment has said to us that we’re at medium overall for money laundering and for terrorism financing, we’re at medium-low.”

In 2019, Saint Lucia was assessed as medium-high for money laundering and medium for terrorist financing. “It’s clear based on what we are seeing from the NRA that the efforts the committee and Saint Lucia have placed in addressing the deficiencies are paying off, so we are very happy about that. In addition to the legislative amendments, we’ve been working with the stakeholders so that they understand what the risks are and ensuring they have their compliance measures in place.”

The government has also promised to ensure transparency in the administration’s financial transactions. While it is alleged that money laundering occurs in Saint Lucia, people and businesses have not yet been identified.