Is your firm up to speed with April’s AML changes?

Legal Eye has produced a comprehensive guide for law firms to check they are up to speed with April’s AML changes.

The 2022 Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations, effective from 1 April 2023, will require businesses subject to the MLRs to conduct checks of the register of overseas entities (ROE) at Companies House for dealings with corporate entities.

For dealings with trust entities, businesses subject to the MLRs will have to comply with checks of the trust registration service (TRS) maintained by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

These changes are intended to improve transparency and combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and failure to comply with these requirements could result in significant penalties for businesses. Legal experts are urging UK businesses to pay close attention to these changes and ensure that they are in compliance by the deadline to avoid potential legal and financial consequences.

Whether we like it or not, all of us in the legal profession, including its Regulators, are firmly in the spotlight of public opinion and must be seen to ensure our AML processes are where they need to be. With this added and stringent provisions, our Regulators will be under even greater scrutiny to continue to review compliance amongst firms calling in a variety of documents on a regular basis and those like the SRA will continue to apply pressure through its Thematic Review regime.

So, are you prepared for a Regulatory review? Have you conducted, or had an external Independent AML Audit? Are your Policies, Controls and Procedures in good order? Do you, and more importantly, your staff know your AML risks? What is the new Regulation 18C? What are some of the key issues for 2023?

Legal Eye has put together this comprehensive guide for you to download and use.

What’s inside:

- New legislative requirements for 2023
- SRA Thematic Report on MLCO and MLRO roles
- Independent AML Audits
- Risk assessment key points
- Technology
- Developments in Crypto Currency
- Conclusion
- Your key questions answered.