Category Archives: Thought leadership

On-demand webinar: The Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive – What Now?

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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 account of the Fifth Directive. With the UK due to exit the European Union just three weeks after, what will the future of money laundering regulation look like?

In this webinar, our experts gave guidance on the application of the Fifth Directive in the UK and what to watch out for in the post-Brexit UK money laundering regime.

The webinar covered:

  • What will the future of money laundering regulation in the UK look like?
  • What are the key changes under the Fifth Directive?
  • Answering questions from registrants

Watch now

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Omnitrack feature summary – Create graphical reports in seconds

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Understand your data by instantly creating charts and graphs

What is Omnitrack?

Omnitrack is a centralised reporting and tracking tool that replaces traditional, yet outdated data management processes such as emails, spreadsheets and long PDF and Word forms. It allows anyone to identify a risk, complete staff surveys or carry out reporting requirements. Compliance managers can then easily track and analyse incoming data. Collecting and storing data relating to all areas of compliance in a central portal adds structure, efficiency and transparency to the compliance process.

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UK DAC6 legislation: HMRC take a more proportionate approach following consultation

The UK’s final DAC6 legislation was adopted by Parliament on 13 January 2020. Significant amendments have been made to the UK’s legislation based on the feedback from the 11-week consultation phase that the HMRC carried out last summer. The final UK legislation takes a much more proportionate interpretation of the EU Directive than the previous draft. 

Here is a summary of five key amendments you should be aware of:

1. Penalties

HMRC amended the penalty regime to ensure it is proportionate and flexible enough to deter non-compliance while at the same time not penalising cases where genuine mistakes were made.

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The Fifth Directive is here – Free anti-money laundering resources

Screenshot of the Fifth Directive resource page

The Fifth Money Laundering Directive has now been transposed into UK law. Does your organisation have everything in place to ensure it is complying with the Fifth Directive? Do you have the latest policies and anti-money laundering training in place? VinciWorks’ anti-money laundering resource page provides helpful tools that can be used by entire organisations to help ensure compliance.

The resource page includes:

View resource page

AML – Free Fifth Directive presentation to share with your organisation

Presentation to the Fifth Directive

The Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (2018/843) is in force as of 10 January 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.

While we do not recommend that companies or law firms that regularly train on AML (every 12–18 months) make any significant changes to their training schedule, staff should still be made aware of how the changes could affect their role and responsibilities.

To help organisations educate their staff on what the Fifth Directive means for them, we have created a customisable PowerPoint presentation on the changes in anti-money laundering regulations in the UK. The presentation can either be sent to your colleagues or used as instructor-led training.

The presentation covers the changes to:

  • Client Due Diligence (CDD)
  • Ultimate Beneficial Ownerships
  • Trusts
  • Cryptoassets
  • Specific industries
  • Internal procedures

Download the presentation

New Omnitrack feature – ready-to-go form template library

We regularly carry out updates to our reporting tool, Omnitrack, to make it easier for administrators to build forms, collect data and analyse that data. One of our biggest developments to date is the addition of a library of best-practice templates covering GDPR, DAC6, health and safety, whistleblowing and more.

What is Omnitrack?

Omnitrack is a reporting and tracking tool that helps businesses shape their culture to encourage all employees to engage in the risk management process. It allows anyone to identify a risk, with high priority issues escalated to the risk management team. Omnitrack replaces traditional, yet outdated data management processes such as emails, spreadsheets and long PDF and Word forms. Collecting and storing data relating to all areas of compliance in a central portal adds structure, efficiency and transparency to the compliance process.

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Understanding Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO) and The Fifth Directive

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.

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Upcoming webinar: Is GDPR over? What Brexit means for UK data protection law

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Tuesday 28 January, 12:00pm

On 31 January 2020, the UK will leave the European Union, and GDPR as we know it will come to an end.

From exit day, the GDPR we have become familiar with will disappear from the statute book and the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 will come into effect. This will result in hundreds of changes to both the GDPR text in UK law and the Data Protection Act 2018.

In this webinar, our Director of Best Practice Gary Yantin will be joined by Director of Course Development Nick Henderson and DPO Ruth Cohen to help organisations understand what data protection looks like in a post-Brexit world.

The webinar will cover:

  • How Brexit will impact on UK data protection law
  • What changes organisations, DPOs and compliance officers need to make to their policies and procedures
  • The most recent GDPR cases from across the UK and Europe
  • The latest in compliance advice and inside tips
  • Answering all your GDPR and Brexit questions

Register now

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Brexit month – Regulatory Agenda for January 2020

The EU flag with the UK's start missing

To help businesses keep track of updates in UK legislation and policies, VinciWorks regularly publishes a short regulatory update. Since our last update in November 2019, Boris Johnson won the 12 December election with a majority of 80 seats in the House of Commons. This means the Prime Minister, following countless delays, looks set to finally fulfil his promise to “Get Brexit Done”. The UK will leave the EU on 31 January 2020.

This regulatory agenda is designed to provide an overview of regulatory changes or new regulations recently passed, proposed, or on the agenda which are relevant to key compliance areas of VinciWorks’ clients in the UK. This regulatory agenda includes the current and upcoming legislation that may be affected by Brexit.

This edition of the regulatory agenda will cover the following:

  • EU developments
  • Bills before Parliament
  • Upcoming legislation
  • Current open consultations
  • Closed consultations
  • Key points of the Queen’s speech that are relevant to compliance.
  • An analysis of the manifesto commitments of the last election

You can download this special edition of the regulatory agenda here.

Fifth Money Laundering Directive – An in-depth guide

Guide to the Fifth Directive

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.

To help businesses understand how the Fifth Directive relates to them, we have created an in-depth guide. The guide covers:

  • Customer due diligence, including enhanced due diligence
  • Ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) and how to comply with the UBO rules
  • Trusts and who is exempt from the Trust Registration Service
  • Cryptoassets, cryptocurrencies and definitions
  • Prepaid cards

Download the guide