Jamaica Reviewing Partnership Act

News Americas, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Fri. July 12, 2024: Jamaica is reviewing The Partnership (General) Act, 2017 and the Partnership (Limited) Act 2017. This is for ensuring that the provisions of the Acts sufficiently incorporate recent  Financial Action Task Force, (FATF), Recommendations.

That’s the word from Janeika Allen, Crown Counsel (Actg), in the Jamaica Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce. Allen said Jamaica is obligated to meet the recommendations set out by the FATF. FATF is the  “independent inter-governmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system against money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

But she did not give a deadline as to when the review will be completed. Her response to News Americas came just days after Jamaica was taken off the FATF ‘grey list.’

On June 28, 2024, the FATF,  at its Plenary held in Singapore, removed Jamaica from the ‘grey list’. This is the list of countries identified as having strategic deficiencies in their Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks.

The FATF Recommendations are the basis on which all countries should meet the shared objective of tackling money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation. They are recognized as the global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) standard. The FATF calls upon all countries to effectively implement these measures in their national systems.

In a 2015 evaluation, Jamaica was compliant or largely compliant with only 17 of the 40 FATF Recommendations. The resulting action plan required it to include all financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) in its AML regime, with adequate risk-based supervision in all sectors. It was also told to take appropriate measures to prevent legal persons and arrangements from being misused for criminal purposes, by making accurate and up-to-date basic and beneficial ownership information available when needed. Other required actions included taking proper measures to increase AML investigations and prosecutions; implementing targeted financial sanctions for terrorist financing without delay; and preventing the misuse of its non-profit sector for terrorist financing purposes. It narrowly missed the June 2023 deadline for fulfilling all these points, but by January 2024 was assessed as having made further significant progress, especially on DNFBPs and beneficial ownership. At that stage, Jamaica was re-rated compliant or largely compliant on 37 of the 40 FATF recommendations.

Following the June 28th decision, The Bank of Jamaica, said in a statement: “The development will enhance confidence among investors and trading partners thereby improving Jamaica’s economic potential.”

This also means that financial transactions between persons in Jamaica and those overseas, inclusive of remittance transfers, could now become more seamless over time,” the Bank added.

The Jamaica Partnership Act (General) of 2017 allowed for the formation of three different types of partnerships: General Partnership without separate legal personality, General Partnership with separate legal personality, and Limited Liability Partnership.

Prior to the General Act, the Companies Act of 2004 placed a requirement that investors with more than 20 partners operating in Jamaica would need to form a company. Thirteen years later, the requirement was finally repealed under Section 112 of The Partnership (General) Act.

It is left to be seen whether the laws will be further amended by the Jamaica parliament this year.

Reported By Eliahna McFarlane; Edited By Felicia J. Persaud

EDITOR’S NOTE: Eliahna McFarlane is a Garvey-Nkurmah 2024 Fellow and summer extern at ICN/Invest Caribbean as well as a second-year law student at Howard University.