KINGSTON, Jamaica — In a decisive vote on 9 July 2025, the European Parliament wiped Jamaica’s name from its catalogue of jurisdictions deemed high-risk for money-laundering and terrorism-financing lapses. The ruling completes the country’s comeback, following last year’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list,” and signals that Brussels now regards Kingston’s financial-crime safeguards as robust.
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith hailed the outcome in a live address to lawmakers. “This is more than a regulatory upgrade,” she said. “It is an endorsement of the discipline and determination Jamaica has shown in overhauling its financial architecture.”
What Changes Immediately
- Standardised Due Diligence: European banks and brokers can treat Jamaican counterparties as normal-risk clients, trimming both red tape and transaction costs.
- Lower Financing Spreads: Trade-finance specialists predict that euro-denominated credit lines extended to Jamaican firms will become cheaper almost overnight.
- Boosted Market Reputation: For global investors, the EU seal of approval removes a lingering compliance caveat and widens the pool of institutions willing to partner with Jamaican entities.
How Kingston Earned the Upgrade
- Legislative Revamp – Parliament tightened the Proceeds of Crime Act, introduced a real-time beneficial-ownership registry, and gave the central bank sharper supervisory teeth.
- Institutional Muscle – The Financial Investigations Division doubled staffing, while regulators adopted AI-assisted analytics to flag suspicious flows.
- Diplomatic Pressure – Jamaica worked the Brussels corridors alongside Barbados and other CARICOM colleagues, making the case that Caribbean reforms deserved European recognition.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness credited “regional teamwork and relentless persistence” for the breakthrough, adding that delisting removes a “perception tax” that had shadowed Jamaican exporters and lenders.
Vigilance Still Required
Both European and FATF monitors will keep Jamaica under post-grace-period review for the next two years. Authorities in Kingston have already set fresh targets, including stricter oversight of digital-asset platforms and quarterly public disclosures of suspicious-transaction statistics.
“Delisting is a milestone, not a resting place,” Johnson Smith reminded domestic financial executives in a same-day briefing. “We must guard this achievement with the same intensity that won it.”
