The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has released its 2023-24 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Annual Report, which outlines the regulator’s focus on preventing financial crime in the legal sector.
This year’s report reveals a rise in penalties and inspections, as well as increased scrutiny on law firms’ compliance with AML regulations. However, it also sheds light on ongoing weaknesses in AML adherence, with only 22% of inspected firms meeting full compliance.
The SRA’s report demonstrates a commitment to tackling financial crime, especially in areas like property conveyancing, which accounted for 73% of the suspicious activity reports (SARs) submitted to the National Crime Agency (NCA) this year. In total, the SRA submitted 23 SARs to the NCA, involving funds exceeding £75 million. The regulator also responded to sanctions regulations, performing 55 inspections focused on financial sanctions compliance.
The report reveals that only 22% of law firms inspected were fully compliant with AML requirements. Of the remaining firms, 55% achieved partial compliance, and 23% were found non-compliant. Among the partial compliance cases, the SRA identified varied issues, including gaps in customer due diligence (CDD), inadequate firm-wide risk assessments, and the failure to assess risks associated with individual clients or matters.
The report attributes several key factors to these compliance gaps, including insufficient involvement from senior executives in ensuring effective AML practices, inadequate training and supervision of fee earners, and flawed systems that fail to enforce CDD checks consistently. In some cases, funds moved between accounts without adequate AML verification, exposing firms to risks of money laundering and misuse of client accounts.
Throughout the reporting year, the SRA recorded several common breaches of AML protocols:
- Failure to conduct risk assessments: 87 instances where firms did not conduct risk assessments on clients or specific matters.
- Insufficient source of funds checks: 46 cases where the source of funds was inadequately verified.
- Failure to comply with financial sanctions: 22 instances where firms did not adhere to the sanctions regime, risking potential financial penalties.
In response to these breaches, the SRA issued 44 fines totalling £556,832, nearly double the previous year’s figure. Of these fines, nine were agreed upon through regulatory settlement agreements, totalling £167,750. The SRA also issued letters of advice and compliance plans to guide firms on improving their AML procedures, with non-compliant firms subject to further enforcement actions.
The SRA’s SARs to the NCA highlight the legal sector’s vulnerability to money laundering, particularly in conveyancing, where high-value residential properties often serve as vehicles for illicit finance. Many SARs involved transactions that completed successfully, though some were abandoned after funds exchanged hands.
This year, the SRA ramped up inspections in response to sanctions imposed under the Russia sanctions regime, forwarding two specific sanctions reports to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) for funds exceeding £369,000.
The SRA acknowledged persistent compliance challenges among law firms, with OPBAS (Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision) urging legal regulators to step up enforcement. 19% of client/matter files reviewed lacked risk assessments, and 12% were found ineffective due to poorly justified risk ratings
One Response
Thank you very much for this interesting article. There are very few legal firms who advertise for AML Officers which is a surprise.