Today HM Treasury has announced a major overhaul of how the UK will police money laundering regulations going forward. The Financial Conduct Authority is to take over responsibility from 22 different professional bodies for supervising lawyers and accountants. It will also take over responsibility from HMRC for supervising company formation agents for money laundering.
Susan Hawley, Executive Director of Spotlight on Corruption, said:
“This bold decision to make the FCA a super-regulator for money laundering is long-awaited and really welcome. The FCA’s relatively strong capacity, expertise and appetite to take enforcement action has the potential to shake up the legal and accountancy sectors who are used to seeing their supervisors go softly on them.
However, this will only work if it is sustainably funded, with reinvestment of money laundering fines back into supervisory capacity, and draws in existing sector-specific expertise. And it is crucial that existing regulators do not take their foot off the pedal while we await legislation which could risk things getting a lot worse before getting better. It’s crucial that HMT fast track the development of legislation to kickstart the transition process.”
