Anti-Money Laundering News

6 May 2008

HMRC Update for Accountancy Service Providers

We would like to inform Accountancy Service Providers that registration guidance will be updated.

The MLR 9 Registration Guidance for ASPs will be updated to reflect feedback from businesses in their discussions with HM Treasury about the interpretation of the regulations as they apply to ASPs.

We want to make sure the right businesses register with us, so we are still in the process of finalising the guidance.

Businesses have until 1 July to register as an ASP. We will update our latest news page with any changes to the registration date as part of the guidance update.

This will give you time to consider the impact of the updated guidance on your need to register.

• If you have not yet registered you may wish to delay registering until the updated guidance is available.
• If you have already registered with us, you do not need to do anything at this time. If you are affected by any change, we will contact you directly when the guidance has been updated.

We recommend that businesses should continue to check HMRC latest news page for updates.

HMRC Update for Trust or Company Service Providers

We would like to inform Trust or Company Service Providers of the latest position regarding updated registration guidance.

On 26 March we announced that the MLR 9 Registration Guidance for TCSPs would be updated to reflect feedback from businesses in their discussions with HM Treasury about the interpretation of the regulations as they apply to TCSPs.

We want to make sure the right businesses register with us, so we are still in the process of finalising the guidance.

We have already allowed businesses to apply to register as a TCSP without penalty until 31 May 2008. We will now set a new application deadline of a minimum of four weeks from the date on which updated guidance is published.

This will give you time to consider the impact of the updated guidance on your need to register.

• If you have not yet registered you may wish to delay registering until the updated guidance is available.
• If you have already registered with us, you do not need to do anything at this time. If you are affected by any change, we will contact you directly when the guidance has been updated.

20 March 2008

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) statement - 28 February 2008

Financial institutions in the UK should give special attention to business relations and transactions with persons, including companies and financial institutions, from jurisdictions that do not adequately apply the FATF Recommendations.

The FATF is an inter-governmental body that develops national and international policies to combat anti money laundering (AML) and the financing of terrorism (CFT). It has released a public statement (PDF 31K) on several countries highlighting their concerns over deficiencies in their AML/CFT legislation.

The countries are Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Sao Tome and Principe, and the northern part of Cyprus.

More information on FATF can be viewed on their website.

If you deal with any of the countries listed you should take account of these concerns in your AML Risk Assessment

OFT bans Birmingham estate agent

23/08    20 February 2008

The OFT has made a prohibition order against a Birmingham estate agent banning him from estate agency work.

Shazad Jahan, a partner of 'Saints Estates & Mortgages' in Kemp Road, Birmingham, has been convicted of offences involving fraud or other dishonesty as referred to in the Estate Agents Act, and therefore considered by the OFT to be unfit to carry out estate agency work.

Mike Haley, OFT Director of Consumer Protection, said:

'This case demonstrates that the OFT will take the strongest possible action to protect consumers and will ban estate agents who are unfit to continue working in the industry.'

Mr Jahan has until 22 February 2008 to appeal.

NOTES

The OFT can take action with a view to banning from estate agency work a person (and for the purposes of the Estate Agents Act 1979 this can also be a company or a partnership) who has been convicted of certain specified offences such as fraud, or other dishonesty or violence; or who has committed racial or sexual discrimination in the course of estate agency work; or who has failed to comply with the requirements placed on estate agents by the Estate Agents Act 1979 and its associated regulations, or who has engaged in specified undesirable practices, if an adjudicator finds that the person in question is unfit to act as an agent.

World-Check exposes terrorists, financial criminals and disqualified directors in UK Companies House Register   21 February 2008

World-Check, in partnership with data quality specialist Datanomic, recently embarked on a project to screen the UK’s Companies House register of companies, company directors and secretaries against World-Check's global database of high risk individuals and organisations. The underlying aim of the project was to identify the growing number of high risk individuals registering and operating businesses in the UK. Two articles appeared in The Times newspaper you can read them directly from the newspaper. The first article entitled '4000 company directors listed as global terror suspects and fraudsters' and the second one 'Buckinghamshire firm run by Croation war crimes suspect Ivan Cermak'.