HM Treasury has issued a call for information on the UK’s anti-money laundering (AML) supervisory regime. The UK government is committed to showing that the UK has an effective AML / counter-financing of terrorism (CFT) regime during its mutual evaluation which will be conducted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2017/18.
In preparation of the mutual evaluation and the transposition of the Fourth Money Laundering Directive the UK government published the National Risk Assessment (NRA) of money laundering / terrorist financing risks in October 2015. The NRA found that whilst the UK’s AML / CFT regimes were well developed, more could be done to strengthen them. In particular it found that:
- the effectiveness of the UK ‘s supervisory regime was inconsistent; and
- the large number of professional body supervisors in some sectors risked inconsistencies of approach.
The purpose of the call for information is to enable the UK government to examine options to improve the supervisory regime and address inconsistencies, ensuring that the UK’s regime is effective, proportionate and meets the international standards set down by the FATF. It focuses on the system of appointing supervisors, the powers of supervisors to incentivise compliance, the adoption of the risk-based approach and how they interact with supervised businesses.
The closing date for comments is 2 June 2016.
View Call for information on anti-money laundering supervisory regime, 21 April 2016
