Francis Arana was appointed as Head of the Anti-Money Laundering Unit (AMLU) in the Attorney General’s Chambers of the Cayman Islands in March of 2014.  As Head of the AMLU, he chairs the Inter-Agency Coordination Committee, whose functions include domestic cooperation and coordination among various agencies in the implementation of policies of the Anti-Money Laundering Steering Group (AMLSG).  This includes coordinating ML/TF risk assessments, as well as Mutual Evaluation and follow-up reports conducted through the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) in accordance with FATF standards. 

Prior to his current posting, Francis worked in the Policy & Development Division of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA); the Economics and Statistics Office, Cayman Islands; and the Central Bank of Belize.

Francis was a financial examiner for two CFATF 3rd round Mutual Evaluations (St. Kitts/Nevis and St. Maarten); and was also a financial examiner for the 4th round CFATF Mutual Evaluation of The Bahamas.   He also served as co-chair of the CFATF Working Group on FATF Issues between 2010 and 2012.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Missouri, Columbia and a Master’s degree in Economics from Clemson University (South Carolina).