The Treasury has announced the launch of the new Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS), designed to tackle potential weaknesses in the supervisory system that criminals and terrorists may be trying to exploit, and is also consulting on further developments to the anti-money laundering (AML) supervisory regime
There are currently 25 AML supervisors in the UK, 22 of which are accountancy, estate agents and legal services providers’ professional bodies. The government’s original consultation, which closed in April this year, looked at the issue of whether the complexity of the supervisory regime was an issue.
It recommended the creation of OPBAS, hosted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to improve coordination and consistency across the system.
OPBAS will have powers to help and ensure professional body AML supervisors meet agreed standards. These include the powers to publicly censure or recommend Treasury remove professional bodies that do not comply with requirements.
As well as publishing its response to the consultation, the government has also published draft regulations to establish OPBAS. A fresh consultation now invites views on whether they deliver the government’s intention that OPBAS help, and ensure, professional body AML supervisors (PBSs) comply with their obligations. It also as for views on the impact of OPBAS on business.
The earlier consultation found that whilst some respondents agreed OPBAS should participate in onsite visits, and thought there would be some situations where OPBAS could usefully collect information from PBSs’ members, there was strong opposition to OPBAS having powers to engage directly with PBSs’ members. This was because respondents thought that OPBAS should focus on ensuring high supervisory standards and that direct engagement with members would undermine PBSs.
In the first consultation, several PBSs cautioned that OPBAS’s focus on PBSs could lead to inconsistent standards of supervision between professional body and statutory supervisors, particularly where professional bodies and statutory supervisors monitor the same sector –notably accountancy and trust and company service providers, where HMRC is also a supervisor.
In its response, the government said HMRC, as a supervisor of accountants and trust and company service providers, intends to adopt OPBAS standards to ensure it provides the same standards of supervision as PBSs. HMRC will publish an annual report on its work as an AML supervisor, and this will set out how HMRC’s supervisory teams have drawn on OPBAS’s guidance, as well as explaining any deviations from it.
All PBSs noted that the cost of OPBAS, including the fee, must be proportionate. The latest consultation asks for evidence on the costs and benefits of OPBAS and streamlined AML guidance for businesses, to underpin the impact assessment. The draft regulations provides FCA with the power to raise funding from PBSs for OPBAS, and the FCA expects to publish a consultation on how the fee might best be distributed in the autumn.
The deadline for responses to the follow up consultation is 17 August.
The original consultation on the AML supervisory regime, which closed on 26 April, is here.
The government’s response to the first consultation and details of OPBAS and the latest call for views, is here.
