Law Gazette reports that legal practices have been fined a combined £2.6m for anti-money laundering breaches. According to the publication, the regulator considers the ‘overwhelming majority’ of firms committed to meeting their obligations, and believes the worst of its enforcement activity may now be behind the sector.
, EAC Network Solutions: For firms of this size, AML compliance rarely fails because of bad intent. It fails because, when a regulator asks a question, nobody can show quickly who accessed a client file, when checks were carried out, or how the records were kept. Firms that treat this as a records and access question, not just a policy one, tend to find inspections far less stressful. A sensible starting point is to review how client due diligence information is stored and who in the firm can actually retrieve it, well before any question is ever asked.
Source: Law Gazette
