Reported by Kalyeena Makortoff

A lack of proper oversight across the City of London’s network of lawyers, bookkeepers and accountants is hampering efforts to crack down on dirty money being funnelled through the UK, the City watchdog has warned.

The latest report by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) flagged concerns over the work of the UK’s 25 professional bodies – which oversee the accounting and legal sectors – and found that some were spending as little as £73 a year on anti-money laundering supervision or were outsourcing it entirely to third parties.

It also found “weaknesses” in how bodies were using their powers, resulting in a drop in fines for members who may have breached the rules. Those groups also failed to proactively and consistently share information with authorities, in a way that was “hampering efforts to make a real dent in the flow of illicit funds in the UK”.

That is despite six years of urging those professional bodies to improve. The report is the fifth released by the FCA’s Office for Professional Body AML Supervision (OPBAS) which was launched in 2017 to oversee the anti-money laundering work of more than two dozen professional bodies that are expected to suspend or fine members if regulations are breached.

They include the Law Society, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Association of Taxation Technicians, and Solicitors Regulation Authority. It is not clear which bodies were included in the most recent report, which sampled the work of nine unnamed groups.

Together, they monitor a wide range of City firms, including those deemed to be at high-risk of being used to facilitate money laundering.Among them are conveyance firms, which transfer properties and assets from one person to another, as well as trust and company service providers, which create corporate entities and vehicles that can be used to disguise the true owners of assets, and hide proceeds of crime.

OPBAS is meant to help root out weaknesses in regulation and counter the UK’s longstanding reputation as a dirty money hub. It does not have powers to impose or collect fines from the professional bodies.

Read full report: https://amp.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/23/concerns-lack-of-city-of-london-oversight-hurting-efforts-to-halt-dirty-money