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 Anti- Money Laundering (Amendment) Regulations 2019
The 2019 Regulations amend:
The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs)
With 2019 drawing to a close, we climbed into our cable car, put on our ski boots and as we reached the top of the slope, raised a mug of hot cocoa to yet another successful year.
2019 was another important year of growth from VincWorks, with 38 new compliance courses, 9 webinars with industry experts and the release of our new revolutionary compliance tracking tool, Omnitrack.
With the dust settling on GDPR, we focused our attention on new compliance topics and areas on the regulatory horizon. Below is a list of the areas that we focused on in 2019 and will continue to be a focus in 2020.
Compliance training roundup
During 2019 users completed an average of 4 compliance courses and 1.5 hours of compliance training.
The most popular compliance training topics were:
Cyber security
Anti-money laundering
Data protection
Anti-bribery
Criminal Finances Act
SRA regulation
Diversity and inclusion
Those topics constituted over 80% of all compliance training time in 2019.
In 2019 we hosted nine free webinars with industry experts on hot compliance topics. Through the webinars, we helped hundreds of businesses by answering several hundred compliance questions on GDPR, the SRA’s Standards and Regulations, competition law, whistleblowing, health and safety and more. All webinars are available on-demand:
We are committed to continuing to bringing top experts to our webinars in 2020. Our first webinar of 2020 will be on January 15th and will focus on compliance with the new Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Register for free below.
2019 has been another productive year for VinciWorks. We have seen a record number of active users and course completions and we have once again released a record number of compliance courses in line with current regulations and compliance concerns. This includes refresher training, short five minute “knowledge checks”, and training on upcoming legislation such as DAC6, the EU Whistleblowing Directive and the SRA Standards and Regulations.
Here is a summary of all 38 courses we released in the past 12 months arranged according to topic. All of our courses are fully customisable and can be translated into any language. Additionally, many courses include a “course builder” that allows each user to take the version of the course most relevant to their industry and job role.
UK/ EU/ Global courses
Competition Law
Organisations have a responsibility and a legal obligation to comply with competition law and to ensure that staff have the knowledge and understanding to do so. Competition Law: Know Your Market drops users into a set of immersive scenarios that test their knowledge, understanding and ability to comply with UK competition law. Covering the Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002, our gamified course Competition Law: Know Your Market rewards users with a new “experience points” system.
In 2019 we expanded our course library significantly into new areas such as DAC6, health and safety, and USA compliance. We also added in-depth training, refresher courses and short knowledge checks to existing topics.
Best practice for GDPR compliance training is to enrol staff in GDPR training every year. The GDPR refresher course, GDPR: A Practical Overview, combines short bursts of learning with practical scenarios and real-life case studies to ensure all staff know how to safely and securely work with data.
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.
VinciWorks’ DAC6 reporting tool guides intermediaries through the process of determining whether a transaction is reportable
One of the big challenges that intermediaries face in reporting transactions under DAC6 is what to do when things change. Client projects which may have been deemed non-reportable, or which may not even have involved any cross-border elements at the outset, may transform into a potentially reportable arrangement later on. The delay between starting work for a client and the matter becoming reportable may be months or even years.
VinciWorks’ DAC6 solution, powered by Omnitrack, guides intermediaries through the process of determining whether a transaction is reportable. It also integrates with existing client and matter management tools via its open API standard. And it now has pre-built integrations with leading matter management tools, such as Intapp Intake, for seamless onboarding of new transactions. However, if a transaction becomes reportable much later on, how should this be handled?
This question can be broken down into two parts:
How should I deal with changing transactions from a technical perspective in Omnitrack?
How should I deal with changing transactions from a personnel perspective in terms of getting people to be aware of what they need to do?
IR35 is a new law designed to reduce tax evasion among freelancers and contractors. Some workers were disguised employees, meaning they operated as permanent employees but were contracted through their own company to claim tax benefits.
Think of Lorraine Kelly who wasn’t directly an employee of ITV, but an actor playing the role of Lorraine Kelly, thus claiming tax breaks for performers.
Understanding the impact of the Conservative landslide
Many would have thought Boris Johnson’s victory in the 2019 general election would bring some certainty to British politics. The UK will be leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020 for one thing. But for compliance departments, uncertainty is actually the most evident outcome of the election.
Issues that had long been on the regulatory agenda, such as IR35, whistleblowing, ePrivacy, GDPR and even money laundering, could all now be subject to the details of the free trade deal the UK government now must start negotiating with the EU. Otherwise, the UK will default to a no-deal scenario at the end of the transition period, currently set for 31 December 2020.
