Omnitrack feature update – Add and arrange form builder questions with ease

Screenshot of the Omnitrack form builder

VinciWorks has made several updates to the Omnitrack form builder to make using our data collecting and reporting tool even easier and more efficient.

What is the Omnitrack form builder?

Rather than spending hours creating and sending out long and tedious Microsoft Excel, Word or PDF forms, the Omnitrack form builder allows administrators to easily build forms with conditional logic. All the data collected from the forms can easily be aggregated into charts that are updated in real-time.

The main advantages of using our form builder to create questionnaires and surveys as opposed to Excel or similar systems are:

  • Choose from a host of form templates that can easily be customised
  • Use conditional logic to build a dynamic form that contains only the questions relevant to each individual completing the form
  • Easily duplicate forms and edit them so you don’t have to start from scratch
  • Seamless collaboration between admins so that all collected data appears in one central portal
  • Capture all edits to the form in our “audit trail” so you can revert back to a previous version of the form
  • All data collected stays in one central location and is updated in real-time. This means that all reports will always be up-to-date
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UK DAC6 legislation: HMRC take a more proportionate approach following consultation

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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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UK DAC6 legislation laid before the House of Commons

Register for our DAC6 email updates

On 13th January 2020, HMRC laid the UK’s DAC6 legislation before the House of Commons in the form of the International Tax Enforcement (Disclosable Arrangements) Regulations 2020, Statutory Instrument 2020 No. 25. The legislation will come into force on 1 July 2020. Reporting will be required for transactions in which the first step of implementation was carried out on or after 25 June 2018.

What is DAC6?

DAC6, the 6th Directive on Administrative Cooperation, requires taxpayers and their advisers (“intermediaries”) to report details of certain types of cross-border arrangements to HMRC. Arrangements are reportable if they contain certain characteristics (“hallmarks”) that could be used to avoid or evade tax. Just because a transaction is reportable under DAC6 it does not always mean that it is not tax-compliant. 

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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

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.

AML presentation

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

Anti-money laundering courses updated for Fifth Directive

Screenshot of AML: Know Your Risk course
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.

Click here to read about full list of changes

Brexit will not affect these changes.

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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 (UBO)?

Who is a Beneficial Owner?

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 UBO Definition

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.

Read more: Interactive and customisable anti-money laundering training suite

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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