Following a report issued by the Office of Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) in March 2019 regarding the standard of supervision across the UK’s professional bodies, we have seen a marked increase in the level of scrutiny placed on Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) in relation to their compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
By example, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) published the results of a review conducted across 59 law firms on the 7th May 2019 which concluded “that a significant minority of law firms are not doing enough to prevent money laundering, with some falling seriously short”. As a result of the review the SRA put 26 firms into its disciplinary processes.