The UK Guardian online, today, published an account of a warning presented by the House of Commons public accounts committee. The committee of MP's warned that the 14 remaining colonies were at risk of becoming centres for money laundering from dubious financial practices because of poor quality regulatory standards.

Anguilla, Montserrat  and the Turks and Caicos Islands were identified as being most at risk. It was revealed that the first two territories had 200 and 150 people respectively working in the financial sector with only one qualified person on each island capable of investigating suspected fraud. They further reported that in the Turks and Caicos Islands, where 700 people are employed in financial services, there are only five people qualified to carry out investigations into suspect practices. The MP's are asking for the Serious Fraud Office and the Serious Organized Crime Agency, the Treasury and the Financial Services Agency to become directly involved in checking fraud in overseas territories.

According to the Guardian,  the MP's warned: "Territories' financial services lack the investigative capacity to scrutinize suspected money laundering activity fully and governors have not used their reserve powers to rectify this. In such a sensitive aspect of the global financial system it is complacent to allow territories for which the UK is responsible entirely to manage the risk themselves."

Read the article.