.jpg)
Michael Harris, Director Financial Crime Compliance and Reputational Risk at LexisNexis® Risk Solutions comments on the recent findings of the OPBAS review into professional bodies’ anti-money laundering (AML) supervisions:
“The OPBAS review confirms exactly what we suspected – there is an inconsistency, and clearly a lighter touch, in the application of AML rules across the professional services sector. Alarmingly, nearly one in four professional bodies has no form of AML supervision in place whatsoever.
It’s clear that there is a two-tier approach to regulation when it comes to AML between financial and professional services. If financial services firms were found with this level of lax controls, there would have been multiple fines issued already. Professional bodies’ controls are often far more lax than their financial counterparts, bordering on self-regulation in some sectors. This leaves the UK increasingly vulnerable to money launders looking to exploit these gaps in the system, and reach the system through the back door.
