The National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Committee (NAC) received the endorsement of the Cabinet of Ministers for the adoption and publication of the National Risk Assessment (NRA) Report on Virtual Assets (VA) and Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPs) during a scheduled Cabinet meeting of 24th of August , 2022.
The endorsement of the VA/VASP NRA report is the latest milestone in an intensive exercise conducted by a number of institutions and other stakeholders under the guidance of the NAC and led by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
The VA/VASP NRA was conducted over the first half of 2022 with the primary objective of aiding NAC and its constituent competent and supervisory authorities to assess the Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorist Financing (TF) risks associated with the existing activities within this area and the risks associated with having a VA/VASP regime in the Seychelles. This is consistent with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.
The endorsement of VA/VASP NRA, permits the NAC to proceed with preparation of a policy framework, guided by the findings and aligned with anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) international best practices. The Cabinet obtained the commitment of the NAC that the same will be presented within three months. The findings of the VA/VASP NRA will also be fed in to the wider second National Risk Assessment which was launched in July of this year and remains ongoing.
Deneo Partners will monitor for any further developments on the specific field and inform our clients, accordingly.