What do I need to check during ongoing monitoring? When do I need to do a CDD review? What do I need to record during ongoing monitoring? Ongoing monitoring is an essential part of an effective anti-money laundering programme and it’s essential to stay on top of compliance requirements to avoid exposure to financial crime and penalties. But keeping on top of the many details of all of the requirements can be challenging. A few months ago we published an in-depth guide to ongoing monitoring, but sometimes it’s helpful to have a short cheat sheet within easy reach to ensure you’re staying in line with the regulations.
Six men were recently convicted of taking part in a £30m money laundering scam which involved passing dirty money through a road haulage firm. The leading operator was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment, while another person involved was sentenced to five years, and others to three and a half years and eight years respectively.
VinciWorks new case study about the scam explains what happened, how the criminals were caught, what the penalties were, and what the red flags in the case were.
Global investment bank Credit Suisse and a former employee were found guilty in a Swiss federal criminal court of failing to prevent money laundering, in a case that should serve as a wake up call for Swiss banks and financial institutions worldwide.
In our new series of AML case-study one-pagers, VinciWorks has produced an insightful case study for this incident, which marks the first time a Swiss bank has been subject to such criminal prosecution.
The case study goes through the details of the case, assesses what they did wrong and which red flags should have been raised. Then the study lays out the penalties, and what the risk indicators were. Finally, the guide sets out a postscript telling where the main players are today.
The Credit Suisse case study can provide valuable lessons for financial and other organisations on how to improve their AML compliance, risk management, due diligence, corporate governance, and ethical practices.
Also check out our podcast episode on the Credit Suisse case, part of our podcast series, “The Money Laundering Files”, available both on our website and wherever you get your podcasts.
AML training suite – relevant training for all staff
VinciWorks strives to make its AML training more than simply a tick-box exercise. Click here to learn more.
At a glance: AML ongoing monitoring
Automating the ongoing monitoring process can be the key to an effective and successful AML programme. Our one-page guide to ongoing AML monitoring provides a succinct and informative overview of oingoing monitoring including a definition, tips on how to comply with AML ongoing monitoring regulations, and answers the questions of who needs to be checked during ongoing monitoring, when to do CDD reviews, and what has to be recorded during ongoing monitoring.
The firm was issued a £5,000 penalty following an investigation by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority into money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
In a clear demonstration of the SRA’s willingness to flex its new fining powers, the SRA has penalised Settle-based Goad & Butcher for six years of anti-money laundering failures. The firm has also had conditions imposed on its authorisation. This comes after previous efforts to bring it into compliance failed.
According to the SRA, since June 2017 the firm failed to have in place a documented and compliant firm-wide risk assessment or compliant policies, controls and procedures. This is contrary to the 2017 Money Laundering,Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations. The firm then failed to have sufficient regard for the SRA’s warning notice on firm-wide risk assessments in May 2019.
UK Government offers the bare minimum on fraud prevention
The UK government had previously announced they are pushing ahead with a game-changing new regulation to expand the ‘failure to prevent’ family of offences to failure to prevent fraud. More details have now been announced about the offence which will be brought forward as part of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill. Significantly, the government have proposed a controversial exemption for smaller organisations, and have ignored calls for a failure to prevent money laundering offence, even for the regulated sector.
Glencore, the mining and commodities giant, has been fined a record-breaking £281 million for bribery in five African countries. The company was found to have paid cash bribes to officials in the national oil and gas companies in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan to secure its access to oil. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) launched an investigation into Glencore in 2019, focused on the activity of the London-based West Africa desk, which sourced and traded crude oil from African countries.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) stated that a risk-based approach is central to an effective AML compliance programme. It’s critical to have strategies and procedures in place to ensure that your risk-based approach is robust, protects your firm’s exposure to financial crime and meets the expectation of regulators. We’ve put together this comprehensive guide to help you do just that.
The Legal Sector Affinity Group (LSAG) has updated its guidance on the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. As of 28 March, Guidance on the new requirement to carry out proliferation financing risk assessments, either as part of the firm’s existing practice-wide risk assessment or as a standalone document.
What is proliferation financing?
Proliferation financing is defined by the FATF as the provision of funds or financial services used for the manufacture, acquisition, possession, development, export, trans-shipment, brokering, transport, transfer, stockpiling or use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery and related materials, including both technologies and dual-use goods used for non-legitimate purposes.
A key focus on preventing the threats posed by Proliferation Financing is the strict implementation of the sanctions regime on North Korea and Iran, as well as preventing chemical weapons activity.
Sanctions laws apply to all businesses. Any business who breaches a UK sanctions regime could be fined or subject to criminal prosecution. Breaching sanctions was recently made a strict liability offence, meaning a business only has to have breached the law to be liable for a penalty, there is no requirement for intent.
What to do now
Review your business for PF risks with a dedicated risk assessment process
Review your AML policies and sanctions policies in light of PF risks
Amend your risk assessments to incorporate PF risks
Implement specific controls and measures highlighted by the PF risk assessment
Record these controls and analyse their effectiveness
VinciWorks have published a new guide covering the basics of proliferation financing, how PF occurs, key PF risks in the UK, red flags and more.
The Gambling Commission announced the largest penalty ever issued by the regulator. William Hill, the betting giant, was slapped with a fine of £19.2M, for failing to protect consumers and stop money laundering.
The Commission’s Chief Executive, Andrew Rhodes, revealed that the problems at the three companies owned by William Hill were “widespread and alarming,” and the regulator seriously considered suspending the firm’s licence.
Many firms are still carrying out paper-based identification and verification of clients during the onboarding process. But is this the most efficient method?
In this webinar, we were joined by Thirdfort’s AML Services Manager Harriet Holmes, Compliance Office’s Managing Director Andy Donovan and VinciWorks’ Director of Product (Omnitrack) Ruth Mittelmann Cohen to explore the extent to which paper-based ID checks are still the best way to carry out CDD.
The webinar will cover:
What should firms be thinking about when identifying and verifying clients?
What methods are available to carry out client checks?
How often should you carry out ongoing monitoring of clients?
What should you think about before purchasing technology to improve your onboarding process?
