Outlaws - AML oversight of the UK legal profession

UK law firms face an almost zero risk of criminal enforcement if they breach anti-money laundering laws and very little prospect of meaningful fines according to a recently published report by Spotlight on Corruption and Global Integrity. The report suggests that self-policing by the legal profession of its compliance with AML laws, through nine different professional bodies, is providing uneven and inadequate enforcement. Denis O'Connor reviews the findings, which confirm that a government target of Spring 2021 to improve the consistency of supervision of lawyers has been substantially missed.

Denis O'Connor, a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment, was a member of the British Bankers' Association Money Laundering Committee from 2003-10 and a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group's Board and Editorial Panel between 2010 and 2016. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial crime issues, both in the UK and abroad.

UK law firms face an almost zero risk of criminal enforcement if they breach AML (anti-money laundering) laws and very little prospect of meaningful fines according to a recently published report [1] by Spotlight on Corruption and Global Integrity. The report suggests that self-policing by the legal profession of its compliance with AML laws, through nine different professional bodies, is providing uneven and inadequate enforcement. Denis O'Connor reviews the findings, which confirm that a government target of Spring 2021 to improve the consistency of supervision of lawyers has been substantially missed.