The Office for Professional Body AML Supervision
(OPBAS)
will work across the UK’s anti-money laundering supervisory
regime to improve standards and ensure supervisors and law
enforcement work together more effectively.
It will directly oversee the 22 accountancy and legal
professional body AMLsupervisors in the UK.
Having several organisations supervising the same sectors
risks inconsistencies that criminals could look to exploit.
OPBAS,
which will operate within the FCA, will ensure the
22 bodies meet the high standards set out in
the Money Laundering
Regulations 2017, and have powers to investigate and
penalise those that do not.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, , said:
Our partnership with the private sector is at the heart
of this reform, and OPBAS will
help our supervisors tighten the UK’s defences against
dirty money whilst minimising unnecessary burdens on
legitimate business.
This is the latest step in the government’s reforms to
the UK’s financial system to make it a hostile
environment for illicit finance
The OPBAS regulations
have been laid in Parliament and will take effect on 18
January. Implementing OPBAS delivers
the government’s commitment to reform the AML supervisory regime,
a key part of the 2016 Action plan for
anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance.
It is the latest step in the government’s biggest reform of
the AML regime in a decade,
complementing wider work including enhancing law
enforcement’s powers through the Criminal Finances Act and
updating the Money Laundering Regulations to implement the
latest international standards, both of which took effect
earlier this year.
