By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Financial Intelligence Unit’s (FIU) top executive yesterday said there has been an “uptick” in suspicious transactions reports (STRs) as it teamed with the Gaming Board to battle financial crime.

Emerick Seymour, the FIU’s director, said that while the unit is still in the process of examining the reports submitted by financial services providers in 2025 there is already a noticeable increase compared to 2024.

“We’ve seen an uptick in the amount of strategic STRs for this year thus far than we’ve seen last year. And so it speaks to the fact that a lot is happening out there, and so we’re doing our best to analyse the information and make a determination as to where it goes,” said Mr Seymour.

The FIU yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Gaming Board in a bid to enhance co-operation between the two agencies in the fight against financial crime. Mr Seymour said the MOU is part of the FIU’s broader efforts to “intensify and solidify” relationships with key stakeholders, enabling easier and more secure information sharing.

“We are that agency of government that that is responsible for receiving, analysing and, of course, disseminating information that may or may not be associated with elements of financial crime and criminality,” said Mr Seymour.

“During our analytical process, some of the information that we receive may be related to the Gaming Board. When we see that, that information is passed on to the Gaming Board for their particular action. And so this memorandum of understanding further enhances and strengthens the relationship that we have between the Gaming Board and the Financial Intelligence Unit.”

Mr Seymour also revealed that similar agreements will be signed with other regulatory bodies in the near future in an effort to ensure the FIU maintains strong relationships with all partners.

“We are signing memorandum of understandings with all of our industry partners; Central Bank of the Bahamas, Securities Commission of the Bahamas, Compliance Commission of the Bahamas, Insurance Commissions, Customs Department, Immigration Department, all of them. We want to ensure that we strengthen and enhance our relationship, and that’s why we do memorandums of understanding,” said Mr Seymour.

Gaming Board Secretary, Terah Rahming, noted the importance of the FIU’s assistance as The Bahamas prepares for the next mutual evaluation of its anti-financial crime regime by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) in 2026.

“The Bahamas is going into a mutual evaluation next year in October 2026, and so the FIU is being instrumental in helping us to prepare for it. We think that it’s a great opportunity for the jurisdiction to work closely with all of the regulators. And so we just look forward to continued co-operation,” said Ms Rahming.