- Being a member
- CIMA Professional Development
- Members in Practice
- Members' Handbook
- Money laundering regulations
- Anti money laundering guidance
- Registering for supervision
- Registering with CIMA
- How supervision will take place
- HMRC and anti-money laundering supervision
- Customer due diligence
- PEPs and enhanced due diligence
- Keeping records
- Suspicious activity reporting to SOCA
- Forty recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force
- Risk based approach to anti-money laundering
- Reliance on other professionals' CDD
- Professional clearance letters
- TCSPs
- Regulation of TCSPs
- Phishing
- Legal professional privilege
- Practising accountants who leave CIMA
- Regulations for Channel Islands and Isle of Man
- Legislation in the Irish Republic
Reliance on other professionals' CDD
CIMA is listed as a Supervisory Authority under Schedule 3 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007.
One of the matters the Regulations have thrown up is the difference between Authorities listed under Schedule 3 Part 1 and those listed under Part 2; CIMA is listed under Part 2.
The Part 1 list includes the three Institutes of Chartered Accountants and ACCA, since all four are Designated Professional Bodies directly responsible to the FSA for licensing members in activities such as financial advice.
CIMA and CIPFA are not DPBs; the cost of CIMA becoming a DPB would be prohibitive to individuals unless Members in Practice could recuperate the fees required, and presumably also make a profit, through activities which might then be open to them.
One benefit of being a member of a Part 1 body is that other professionals may place reliance on Customer Due Diligence carried out by, say, a Chartered Accountant, on a prospective client.
No such reliance can be placed on CDD carried out by a Member in Practice of CIMA. This may seem unfair and discriminatory, but the Treasury and the FSA calculate that because the activities of members of the Part 1 bodies pose a greater risk, and because they are ultimately responsible to the FSA as well as to their own Institute, their CDD procedures will always be to the highest possible standard.
That may or may not be the case, and many CIMA members will have equally high CDD standards in place, but as they are only regulated and supervised by their own professional body, there is a perceived element of risk which the Treasury is not at present prepared to take.
CIMA and the other Part 2 bodies will keep this particular decision in the spotlight, and it is to be hoped that the Treasury will in due course relent, though this will not be in the short term.
Thus you should not expect another professional to place reliance on CDD you have carried out; to do so would be against the law.
It is important that CIMA members understand the Money Laundering Regulations and adhere to them closely, for the future benefit of CIMA and all CIMA Members in Practice, as an excellent track record will bring positive results eventually.