Academics, key national security officers, and legal experts have knocked heads to create a certificate short course as part of a timed national response to strengthening professional capacities in combating financial crime.

The course, titled Fundamentals of Countering Financial Crime, will be on offer at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Mona come January.

Introduced following a request from the Financial Investigation Division’s Chief Technical Director Dennis Chung, the course is tailored for professionals in law enforcement and the financial sector and will focus on key areas such as financial crime investigation elements, asset recovery strategy development, financial intelligence analysis, and presentation of investigation findings.

Vice chancellor of The UWI Professor Sir Hilary Beckles told guests at the launch of the initiative on Monday that the issue of integrity within the financial services sector is “a top priority” for the Caribbean.

“You cannot have effective, sustainable, economic development unless the circuit of money and capital, the movement of financial resources through all the sectors of the economy can be measured and assessed to have integrity and to be as free as humanly possible from criminality,” Beckles stated.

“This is important; in fact, the research has shown that financial corruption, financial crimes, unethical behaviour, these can have a measurable impact in slowing down the rate of economic development. This has been demonstrated in many countries around the world. You could be losing up to 20 per cent of your gross domestic product, you could be slowing down your economic growth by two to three per cent if you are not in control of a process that has integrity and is free of crime,” he stated further.

Finance Minister Fayval Williams welcomed the initiative and pointed out that “a good reputation in anti-money laundering is worth its weight in gold”.

“Having been as involved in the financial sector from as many different vantage points as I have, I can say that the value of being known as a jurisdiction that takes anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism, and countering proliferation financing seriously is invaluable,” the finance minister declared.

She said the introduction of the course, which will increase the knowledge base of professionals here, will also help to attract others to the field and shore up the island’s reputation which has taken a beating on the international front with respect to financial crimes.

“Jamaica is a member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force. It’s the region’s anti-money laundering organisation. It comprises some 27 Caribbean states working to combat money laundering and terrorist financing by implementing the international financial action task force standards within the region,” she said.

“Jamaica will have its next evaluation next year. We already completed a draft national risk assessment. I am going through it, I am looking at the comparison between where we are now in 2025 versus where we were in 2021 and I can tell you that from top to bottom of Government we take this seriously,” Williams told the gathering.

“It takes a lot of work to get done and we would love to sail through this assessment. Jamaica has completed its fourth round of mutual evaluation and the subsequent follow-up process, having been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list. In June of 2024 we had to address a 13 point action plan. We were also on the Europeans’ blacklist. We’ve come off of that and we do not want to get back on either list as a jurisdiction,” Williams said.

“Thanks again to the chief technical director of the Financial Investigation Division for this initiative. We can sleep better at nights knowing that conscientious persons are at work ensuring that Jamaica keeps strengthening its anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism, and countering proliferation financing architecture and framework,” the finance minister said.

Meanwhile, Chung, in providing the rationale for the development of the course, said “We thought that it was necessary and a time to move with it.

“We discussed the shortage of skills in the industry and not just skills but one of the things we discussed is that it’s not only a skill gap; the fact of the matter is that a very small percentage of people make it to the final interview because of integrity issues and that’s one of the things that we need to address,” Chung pointed out.

“I think this is a seminal moment because to have something like this which is home-grown across the region, not just Jamaica; to have something like this that will eventually develop into a degree programme, I think is a significant landmark for us to have something like this in the region where we can say it’s our own and we’re benefiting not just from the local academics but the persons who are actually in the field who are working, because one of the things we’re looking at seriously at FID — and I know also at MOCA (Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency) — is the whole matter of succession planning,” he said.

“There’s a present crop of persons who are excellent when it comes to investigation, but we have to keep that train moving, we have to get younger persons into it. We have to get persons in that line of succession so they can take over and do even better,” Chung said, while pointing to the importance of training Jamaicans in the country.

“So this certification programme is therefore just another illustration of the partnership, and we’re elated that The UWI is actually the institution that has come onboard with us,” he added.

The certificate programme, first of its kind in the region (prior to this all certification in financial crimes needed to be done outside the region) will start on January 6, 2026 with the first cohort of 30 people — five from each participating law enforcement agency. It will last for six weeks and will be face-to-face for the first cohort after which it will be offered by distance learning platforms so people in the region can participate.

The programme is being offered with financial backing from the Inter-American Development Bank Group and the British High Commission.