Are you gambling with your business reputation and finances?
Inadequate anti-money laundering (AML) risk assessments and a failure to conduct customer due diligence. can have catastrophic consequences.
Fines, criminal penalties, and irreparable brand damage are all on the table when AML safeguards fail.
Every transaction could be funding the activities of dangerous criminal enterprises or terrorist organisations. That money trail of illicit funds may lead right back to your doorstep if you lack robust AML risk management.
The headlines detailing AML compliance breaches are a hall of shame no company wants to be part of. For example:
Batchelor Sharp (Bristol firm) was fined £23,035 for not completing any client or matter risk assessments on its files prior to March 2023. The UK Solicitors Regulation Authority noted it was a serious breach that persisted for an unreasonable period.
Clyde & Co was fined £500,000 and former partner Edward Mills-Webb was fined £11,900 following AML breaches. The SRA stated this “should be a wake-up call to any firms that are not meeting their responsibilities to have robust AML processes.”
But it’s not just law firms that are in the regulator’s cross hairs.
HMRC fined estate agents a total of £519,000 for not complying with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations between May and October 2022. The fines were for failing to register with HMRC or registering late, with fines ranging from £2,000 to £15,000.
Accountancy service providers and other businesses were fined a total of £3.2m for breaching AML regulations between 1 July and 31 December 2022 by HMRC.
Reliable sources suggest that regulatory activity and scrutiny is only set to increase, in the areas of AML Compliance, Crypto Currency and a growing move towards holding executives personally responsible for compliance failures.
That’s where IRIS integrated with EDDIE comes in, we have fused risk assessment together with specialist search tools to provide you with an affordable alternative to the big-ticket providers.
Our solution will provide you with the comfort of knowing you have followed a logical, systematic process, conducted the relevant searches and maintained the necessary records.
AND – you can risk assess a client in 5 minutes as demonstrated in our video here plus on a pay as you go plan it will cost you only £25, yes you read that correctly.
Upgrade your compliance journey with IRIS and EDDIE and become part of our journey to keep good people and their businesses on the right side of the regulator and do their bit to prevent financial crime.
