Anti Money Laundering is on the agenda - particularly for law firms. The SRA carried out a number of inspections over the last year, in advance of the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force promising to audit UK law firms in 2017, via a series of no-notice inspections. Your firm could be one of the firms inspected.
If that wasn't reason enough to take notice, breaching the money laundering regulations could lead to up to a 5m euro (or 10% of turnover) fine, and if you are the MLRO for your firm, a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
New Legislation
The latest EU Money Laundering Directive came into force last year. The UK government has until mid 2017 to implement this into national laws. They will include new obligations on firms in relation to client due diligence, and new obligations to report suspicious transactions and record details of payments.
A concern of many MLROs has been the potential for liability to clients where they have been prejudiced by an Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) having been made. The 2015 Serious Crime Act provides new protections for firms in this regard.
AML Webinar
Our recent webinar, presented by Sam Palmer, Ashford's Head of Professional & Financial Risks, explains the practical implications of the swathe of new AML legislation recently introduced or in the pipeline. Sam is particularly well versed in the subject having been responsible, during her tenure at the SRA, for leading their AML focus. You can download the slides that accompany this webinar using the link below.
The webinar provides practical guidance on:
- avoiding Tipping off, and defending allegations of tipping off
- the new client due diligence requirements ('Know Your Client' is no more!)
- Sanctions and PEPs (Politically Exposed Persons). Note: these are more prevalent than you might think.
- effective record keeping
- recent cases
Other Resources
As part of Lockton's commitment to providing clients with useful resources, we are putting an increasing range of resources online. Look out for further resources being launched in the coming weeks.
For firms that do not already have any form of File Opening/Client and transaction vetting checklist, we provide a simple template that you can use. This is available for clients to download via the logged-in client portal.
You can watch our AML webinar at any time, and share it with colleagues.
If you want to run your own in-house training, we have a powerpoint presentation template you can download. Just click on the link at the end of this article.
Ashfords also can provide a review of your firms policies and procedures, and/or provide bespoke AML training for you in house.
For more information or guidance on AML matters, contact Calum MacLean.