While much of the world has been in lockdown and most staff have been working from home, financial crime has not disappeared. In fact, fraud has become more sophisticated than ever with many criminals using the pandemic as an opportunity to exploit vulnerabilities. It is crucial to adapt financial crime controls such as anti-money laundering (AML) procedures to the specific needs of the crisis. Financial crime procedures should be kept under frequent review as the pandemic progresses.
Here are some tips on how to protect your firm from financial crime during the pandemic and beyond.
VinciWorks’ new anti-money laundering training contains interactive scenarios questions and red flag assessments
When it comes to compliance training, the antidote to boredom is relevance.
Training that isn’t relevant is boring, unengaging and of limited effect. Training that resonates with the user, that feels like it was written with his or her particular industry, practice area or job role in mind, works.
Content that isn’t engaging isn’t going to stick and will ultimately waste the learner’s time. Boring content, along with a lack of interaction, severely harms the effectiveness of training. With regulators increasingly taking a deeper look at the content of training, not just completion records, training that merely ‘ticks the box’ with a one-size-fits-all approach will ultimately fail.
Much of the world is still under lockdown, but many businesses are working hard to keep economically active during the crisis. Unfortunately, where there is financial activity, there’s also the risk of financial crime. Google has seen more than 18 million corona or COVID-19 related malware and phishing attacks per day.
In our 15-minute on-demand webinar, our Director of Learning and Content Nick Henderson takes us through the schemes scammers are deploying to exploit the pandemic. He also shares guidance on how we can protect ourselves and our businesses against these risks.
All gambling operators have a statutory duty to keep financial crime out of gambling. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) obligates gambling operators to be alert to customers who try to gamble unlawfully acquired money. Money laundering includes both using illegal cash to clean the money as well as simply using it to fund gambling.
Money laundering risks are not only found in the operator-to-customer relationship, however. They can also occur in business-to-business relationships, as well as with any third parties operators contract with.
Details of the extension of the trust registration service under the Fifth Directive
On 24 January 2020, HMRC launched their promised technical consultation on changes to the Trust Registration Service (TRS) to be made under the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive.
The changes will focus on the registration requirements of all UK and many non-EU resident express trusts, whether or not they incur a UK tax consequence. This could extend the number of registrable trusts from around 200,000 to over two million.
AML: Know Your Risk drops users into real life, immersive scenarios to test their knowledge, understanding and ability to uncover risks of money laundering hidden in everyday transactions
The Fifth Money Laundering Directive comes into force on 10 January 2020. All VinciWorks courses have been automatically updated to ensure that they reflect the latest regulations across all relevant jurisdictions.
There is no technical impact for any of our existing clients whether on the LMS or SCORM.
All course enrolments, both in-progress and all new enrolments will be updated for the Fifth Directive.
After an extensive review of the new regulations, we have concluded that the training impact for most regulated businesses in the UK is minor. As a vanguard in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, the UK already implemented many of the provisions of the Fifth Directive in 2017. For example, the Fifth Directive requires enhanced due diligence for transactions involving high-risk countries, a requirement that already exists in the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. The Fifth Directive also introduces new requirements for cryptocurrency, letting agents and art dealers but these requirements do not affect most regulated businesses.
From 10 January 2020, the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (2018/843) is in force in the UK and around the European Union. The changes are not as extensive as those that were introduced in the Fourth Directive, such as the concept of risk based due diligence, but the Fifth Directive will impact an increasing number of businesses who must now have regard to money laundering laws.
What is Ultimate Beneficial Ownership?
A beneficial owner is any person controlling or owning more than 25% of the shares or voting rights. The details of beneficial owners must be recorded and held on a central register accessible to competent authorities. Ultimate beneficial owner refers to someone who ultimately owns or controls the customer and/or the natural person on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted. It also includes those persons who exercise ultimate effective control over a legal person or arrangement. An ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) is always a natural person.
On 10 January 2020 the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019 came into force. This statutory instrument updates the UK’s existing anti-money laundering legislation to take into account the Fifth Directive.
The 2019 Regulations amend:
The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs)
From 10 January 2020, the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (2018/843) is in force in the UK and around the European Union. The changes are not as extensive as those that were introduced in the Fourth Directive, such as the concept of risk-based due diligence, but the Fifth Directive will impact an increasing number of businesses, such as art dealers and cryptocurrency companies who must now have regard to money laundering laws.
Businesses, such as law firms, banks, accounting firms, FCA regulated companies and estate agents who already have AML procedures in place will likely need to make only small modifications to their procedures.
Training plan recommendation
VinciWorks does not recommend that companies or law firms that regularly train on AML (every 12–18 months) make any significant changes to their training schedule because of the new directive.
Nick Henderson, Director of Course Development at VinciWorks
The UK is obligated to transpose Directive (EU) 2018/843, commonly known as the Fifth Money Laundering Directive (5MLD), into national law by 10 January 2020. Despite Brexit and the flexible date of Britain leaving the EU, the terms of the implementation of 5MLD are set out in the Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and European Commission. Even if such an agreement doesn’t end up being the foundation of Brexit, the 5th Directive will need to become law in the UK.
In April 2019, the UK government launched its consultation on transposing the Fifth Directive into UK law. It contains a number of important expected changes and additional obligations all compliance officers should know about. For those who wish to respond, the consultation is running until 10 June 2019.
Here, we provide a comprehensive accounting of all the key changes compliance officers should know about the Fifth Directive.
