Money laundering is the process of transforming the profits of crime and corruption into ‘legitimate’ assets. It involves the concealment, re-arrangement, and use of proceeds raised from criminal activity. Offences relating to money laundering are set out in Part 7 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 which came into force on 26 June 2017. Enforcement authorities including the Financial Conduct Authority and HMRC, alongside professional body supervisors, enforce and supervise the compliance with the Regulations. The Money Laundering Regulations requires certain types of businesses which include those with a strong financial element, such as financial and credit businesses, accountants and estate agents to put in place robust policies and procedures to prevent and detect money laundering activity. There is detailed guidance within the 2007 Regulations on what this involves, including amongst other things:

• analysing the risk of your business being implicated in money laundering
• validating the details of your customers to confirm their identity;
• more comprehensive customer verification in specified circumstances; and
• checking the details of ‘beneficial owners’ of corporate entities

Those required to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations are also set to increase when the EU’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive is transposed into UK law.