Call for information: anti-money laundering supervisory regime
Detail of outcome
A response and call for further information has been published. This summarises the submissions received, outlines the governments views and next steps, and includes a request for further views on proposals to increase oversight of professional body supervisors. The government welcomes all contributions received through this Call for Information, and separately through the Cutting Red Tape Review of the UK’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter financing for terrorism (CFT) regime.
In particular, the government:
- intends to clarify the obligations on all supervisors through the new Money Laundering Regulations, which were published in draft today
- will introduce a new Office for Professional Body AML Supervision (the office), to work with professional bodies to help, and ensure, compliance with the regulations. The office will be hosted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It will carry out this function separately from its existing supervisory work, and it will be funded through a new fee on professional body supervisors that the FCA will consult on in due course
- welcomes work by all supervisors to continually review and improve their risk based approach to supervision, including the FCA which has increased the resources allocated to smaller firms to improve communications and carry out more onsite visits
- will work with supervisors and industry to address any unnecessary and contradictory guidance, ensuring businesses are provided with guidance that clearly sets out how they can tackle money laundering risks
Original consultation
Consultation description
The National Risk Assessment (October 2015) highlighted weaknesses in the UK’s overall Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regime. One of the weaknesses identified was inconsistency in supervision.
HM Treasury has committed to undertake a review of the UK’s AML/CFT Supervisory Regime and examine options for reform that will address those inconsistencies and build a more effective system. This review represents an important step towards ensuring that the UK’s regime is proportionate and meets the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), ahead of the UK’s FATF Mutual Evaluation in 2017/2018.
Documents
Last updated 16 March 2017 + show all updates
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Updated to place response document on a new consultation page.
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Updated with the response to the consultation.
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Updated document - sentence added: "The UK has an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regime that makes the UK a hostile environment for illicit finance. The regime relating to Politically Exposed Person (PEPs) will be both robust and proportionate with resources focused on higher-risk individuals in line with international best practice."
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First published.