Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Finance highlights FIUTT emphasis on VASP reporting duties as TTSEC admits eight firms to the sandbox

The Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Finance published a release on remarks by the Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago at the Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission’s first Industry Dialogue Series on Virtual Assets. In that forum, the FIUTT stressed that oversight of virtual asset service providers under the Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers Act helps mitigate money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crime, and that VASPs, like banks and other financial institutions, have a legal duty to report suspicious transactions and activities to the FIUTT. The release links that message to Trinidad and Tobago’s new virtual asset framework and notes that the TTSEC has granted sandbox certificates to eight VASPs that met the Act’s requirements. It also says the FIUTT is working with the TTSEC, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service on regulation and enforcement as the sector develops, while the dialogue also covered the virtual asset risk landscape, the legislative framework for VASPs and law enforcement challenges in the crypto sector.