FIJI’S Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) director Caroline Pickering said the real estate sector was exposed to certain risks such as money laundering and there was a need to regulate it.
“Regulation is important because it protects consumers,” Ms Pickering said while speaking at the 6th National Real Estate Conference in Nadi last week.
“It ensures ethical conduct and behaviour amongst real estate agents, it ensures transparency, accountability and also it mitigates risk.
“The real estate sector is exposed to certain risks
“One being financial money laundering. The real estate sector is a lucrative sector for criminals and their associates to invest the proceeds of their crime.
“So, regulation is needed to mitigate this risk and protect the sector and protect the real estate agent.”
Ms Pickering said as regulators they needed to find the right balance.
“Because we do not want regulation or a regulatory framework to struggle with innovation and growth in the sector.
“So, what can the regulator do?
“As a regulator it is important (to know) the objective we are trying to achieve in our regulations
“We need to protect the consumers; we need to protect the real estate agents and traditional landowners of the native land.
“So, keeping those objectives in mind, we need to design proper laws and good requirements to achieve those objectives making sure we don’t over design.”
Ms Pickering also emphasised the need to be cautious on requirements imposed.
“It’s about making sure we have the right design, the rules, laws that are fair and proportional to risks and are prevalent around growth and innovation.
“After we’ve designed the regulatory framework, it’s about implementation.
“As a regulator we need to support our compliance, and we need to have the right systems, processes in place to help them comply and to ensure efficiency in the processes.
“And this will contribute to a conducive business environment in the sector,” Ms Pickering said.
