Amendments to balance out harsh anti-financial crime regulations for charities were debated in the House of Assembly today.

The Charities Amendment Act 2026 was designed to refocus compliance measures after a 2025 review of Bermuda’s charity sector showed it was over-regulated under existing legislation.

Tinée Furbert, the Minister of Youth, Social Development and Seniors, explained that non-profit organisations needed “focused, proportionate, effective and risk-based measures” to identify terrorist-funding risks, as recommended by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force.

She said Bermuda had “significant provisions” to make it mandatory for charities to have a compliance officer who submitted suspicious activity reports.

However, she explained that a 2025 review showed compliance requirements were “threshold-based rather than risk-based” and “misalign supervision with heavy emphasis on monitoring checks and regulatory compliance, as opposed to assessing and actual risk factors”.

She added that this regime, ironically, did not align with the FATF’s recommendation that non-profit organisations do not act as reporting entities and conduct the due diligence reserved for financial institutions.

Ms Furbert said that Bermuda risked a non-compliant rating in the FATF’s Mutual Evaluation next year if corrective action was not taken.

The amendment seeks to repeal existing regulations while keeping the helpful aspects needed for good governance.

Ms Furbert said the line “supervisory” would be replaced with “oversight” and references to anti-money laundering standards would be removed, as charities were more likely to experience terrorism financing than money laundering.

She said the amendment would remove regulations that “imposed obligations on charities that treat them like reporting entities”.

Ms Furbert added that new civil penalties would be introduced, such as a $200 fine when a charity fails to register as an exempt charity under the Act within 30 days of incorporation.

One inclusion was a provision that staff salaries must be included over “a clear public interest in salary information for charities being part of the public record”.

Jarion Richardson, the Shadow Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, supported the amendment, saying it was not just about meeting international standards, but about proportionality.

However, he noted concern around disclosing salaries and discouraged it based on oversight concerns.

Mr Richardson said these provisions were “a step in the right directions” but “don’t go far enough”.

He explained: “I think that the due diligence requirements imposed in the regime, as yet not defined in the guidance notes, invite overreach.

“To that end, I have the assurances of the minister and her team that the guidance notes relevant to make sure that overreach does not occur will be brought into force in due course.”