5 : fatf fourth round evaluation rankings source : fatf nearly all of you would be aware that the cfatf issued the bahamian ratings in 2017, but another exercise is in progress now, with a new assessment scheduled to be published in a couple of months. we expect that the re - rating will appreciably improve the bahamian position on this map of relative aml / cft strength, as reflected through the fatf ratings universe. regardless of how one feels about the fatf in general and the bahamian assessment in particular, it is clearly the case that the fatf approach is : - credible ; fully documented ; reasonably consistent in global application ; and represents a great deal of work by experienced aml professionals. only the first of these characteristics applies to the next rating source, the us state department ’ s international narcotics control strategy report ( incsr ). in the absence of a credible competitor to the fatf assessments, many around the world have launched on to this list as the second major source of sovereign aml risk information. the problem with this approach is that the incsr is not any sort of rating model. it is simply a list prepared through the relevant american embassies and coordinated in washington. the underlying analytic support for this list, we understand, is a single page questionnaire, which is filled out locally, not necessarily by an aml professional. our intent is not to criticise the state department. they have never claimed that the incsr is any sort of aml ratings tool, but it is simply a statutory requirement under relevant american legislation. at any rate, in the incsr universe, the bahamas is on the list, as are 75 percent of the countries considered by the state department. now we move to the four subscription services : thomson - reuters, about which you will hear more later today ; ibm ; the basel governance institute ; and knowyourcountry. com. all four of these providers deploy a weighted average approach to risk scoring, within which the fatf and state department assessments are typically the two largest inputs. other inputs include items such as global transparency, rule of law, and economic league tables. the bahamas tends to rate somewhere in the medium to high risk range with these four subscription services. knowyourcountry, for example, has us as medium risk and rated 139th out of 219 jurisdictions. the basel governance ratings has us as high risk, and in the ninth out of ten deciles of countries.

currency initiative, for which we received expressions of interest through september 15th, is a financial inclusion, aml and economic efficiency prospect. the returns against these metrics will crystallize at varying pace over time. it would be fair to say though that the future of retail payments appears to be centered on mobile phones rather than cards, and much more so than inbranch bank transactions. the central bank ’ s promotion of a credit bureau, as already noted, should assist in financial inclusion, as bahamian lenders will become more confident that they understand their prospective lending customers. we are shortlisting potential operators of the bureau this month, and plan to complete the licensing process for the successful bidder before the end of 2018. finally, the central bank recently released updated guidelines for aml / cft risk management. among a great many other items, these guidelines have substantially streamlined the documentation requirements to open a simple b $ bank account. this will make banking easier for all bahamians, and also make banking available to some of our residents who previously couldn ’ t open a bank account. where to from here? in forecasting the future, it ’ s important to remember that we know, but can ’ t predict the timing or incidence, of some major negative shocks. these include hurricanes, global recessions, and sudden panics in the international financial and banking markets. what we can assert, however, is that the bahamas is not yet as well positioned for these shocks as we would like to be, or as we intend to be. most obviously in the context of this conference, the bahamas has become, and will continue to become, a more robust jurisdiction in managing aml / cft risks. this has direct benefits in discouraging criminality, corruption, and terrorism, and large indirect benefits in giving the world ’ s major financial markets and institutions the confidence to deal with us on good terms. improved financial inclusion will also lead to improved resilience. our banking system will become bigger and safer. there is the prospect for our insurance, funds management, and pension industries to grow, which creates better risk pooling and a larger pool of long term investable funds for the bahamas. outside the sphere of this conference, we see the bahamian government and associated parties undertaking many initiatives to reduce societal risk. we are a small country facing a somewhat uncertain future. provided we manage our risks sensibly and proactively, however, i am confident that the bahamas can as