News

The Council of Europe anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing body MONEYVAL has published its General Activity Report for 2017, though references to lawyers are (refreshingly, perhaps) few and far between. See here.

HMRC have updated the Guidance to include information about self-reporting a company or partnership that's facilitated criminal tax evasion. See here.

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http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/902-defence-against-money-laundering-faq-may-2018/file

The Law Society has issued guidance on the reasonable excuse defence. See here.

The Law Society has issued guidance on LPP when disclosing suspicions to an MLRO. See here.

Fifth Money Laundering Directive The European Parliament has published a press release announcing its adoption of a proposal for a fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (MLD5).  See here. The text of the Directive is here.

The Treasury Committee is seeking evidence for an enquiry into the anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and sanctions regimes. See here.

The Law Society has now published a summary of changes from the draft to final AML guidance. See here.

The SRA has published its sectoral risk assessment which should form the basis for firms' own risk assessments along with the national risk assessment and knowledge of their services, clients and delivery channels. See here.

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The anti-money laundering (AML) guidance produced by the legal sector AML supervisors, including the Law Society, has now received the approval of HM Treasury. See here. For a comparison with the original draft guidance see here.

SRA Thematic Review, Preventing Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, March 2018 See here.

SRA Ethics guidance on The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017. See here.

Transparency International have published the Corruption Perceptions Index 2017. See here.

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This instrument makes provision for the Financial Conduct Authority’s (“FCA”) oversight of the professional bodies which have responsibility for supervising compliance with the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (the “MLRs”). See here.

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The European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on the Commission's proposal to further strengthen EU rules on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing. See here.

The European Parliament’s Special Inquiry Committee into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Evasion has made 211 recommendations for reform. See here.

New EU-wide penalties for money laundering are being proposed. See here.

This is the start of a continuing process. See here.

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The Legal Services Board has published a letter to the SRA in which it sets out its views on the regulatory function of supervisors under the AML regime,  concluding that the guidance published by the Legal Sector Affinity Group, for ...

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The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill was introduced into the House of Lords on 18 October 2017.  This will ensure that when the UK leaves the EU, the UK can continue to impose, update, and lift sanctions and AML regimes. See here  

The anti-money laundering (AML) legal supervisors have agreed draft legal sector anti-money laundering guidance taking account of the changes introduced by the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, which came into force on 26 June 2017.

Europol has published a report, From Suspicion To Action - Converting Financial Intelligence Into Greater Operational Impact.  This notes that Just 10% of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) are further investigated after collection, a figure that is unchanged since 2006.  Over ...

The Chartered Institute of Taxation has published a brief introduction to the ‘Corporate offences of failure to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion’ (Criminal Finances Act 2017). See here.