More than £131 million denied to criminals as a result of Anti-Money-Laundering efforts
The National Crime Agency has released its annual report on Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) in relation to money-laundering and terrorist financing.
Estate agents made 635 SARs reports in the past year, which made up 0.13 per cent of total SARs and is 10.56 per cent fewer than last year.
Reports up in total
Across all sectors, 478,437 SARs were made between April 2018 and March 2019, an increase of 3.13 per cent on the 2017-18 year.
Defence Against Money Laundering (DAML) requests have seen a 52.72 per cent increase on the previous year’s 22, 619. This led to £131,667,477 denied to criminals as a result of DAML requests, up 153.66 per cent on the previous year.
The introduction of Account Freezing Orders and the extension to the moratorium period enacted by the Criminal Finances Act is believed to be the reason for the significant increase in funds denied to criminals during this reporting period.
The UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) has also launched a SARs in Action publication, aimed at all participants in the SARs regime. Each publication will focus on a specific issue relevant to the exploitation of financial intelligence to assist in preventing/detecting crime.
The full National Crime Agency report, which contains a breakdown of UKFIU’s activities for the year, and figures for SARs reports across all industries, is available from the NCA website.
Propertymark Anti-Money-Laundering Resources
With the Fifth Money Laundering Directive set to become law next month, it is more important than ever that agents comply with the law. Propertymark has a suite of resources, including AML health checks, guides, and webinars that help agents to understand and comply with the law.
Kindly shared by NAEA Propertymark
