Treasury shifts conveyancing AML oversight to FCA
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is set to become the single regulator for anti-money laundering to cover legal, accountancy and trust and company service providers.
It is unclear what this means for estate and lettings agents and whether they will still come under the oversight of HMRC, but Estate Agent Today has sought clarification.
This follows a Treasury consultation on AML reforms where it proposed a single professional services supervisor.
The Treasury announced yesterday that the FCA will carry out the new supervisory functions as part of its remit and will be tasked with working with the professional services sector, other regulators, and law enforcement agencies to improve the UK’s defences against money laundering.
It said:
“The FCA will carry out these functions independently of HM Treasury and will be provided with the powers necessary to succeed in carrying out this role.
“The FCA will now supervise firms that carry out activities within scope of the Money Laundering Regulations as Legal Service Providers (LSPs), Accountancy Service Providers (ASPs), and Trust and Company Service Providers (TCSPs).”
There is no timetable for the changes as new legislation will be required.
But the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has expressed surprise at the move.
Sheila Kumar, chief executive of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, said:
“This is not the outcome we had expected because, as we and others (including all the other legal sector regulators) made clear to HM Treasury in response to the 2023 consultation, it will create a dual supervision regime and risks increasing the burden on the regulated community and a financial burden that will be passed on to users of legal services. We await the detail and the next consultation on the operation of the new arrangements.
“The CLC will be working with HM Treasury and the FCA and the other legal sector regulators to ensure the new system is as efficient and effective as possible in tackling money laundering and terrorist financing. We are concerned that creating a separate regime for AML supervision will require significantly more coordination between front line regulators like the CLC and the FCA as the supervisor of AML compliance but risks opening up gaps in the insight that we currently have across all areas of the practices that we regulate.”
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