AML Guidance

A free webinar is available for all members in practice to support your compliance with current money laundering regulations. You may also wish to make the webinar available to all relevant employees within your practice as part of your obligations around training.

The webinar covers the following topics:

The webinar will cover the following areas:

• Reminders of what money laundering and terrorist financing is
• Reminders of what CIMA requires and the legislative backdrop in the UK and Ireland
• Areas where improvements are often considered necessary
  • Whole of firm risk assessment
  • Customer due diligence documentation
  • Suspicious activity reporting (including some real life examples)
  • Training
  • Signposting to relevant support and documentation

Accountants are key gatekeepers for the financial system, facilitating vital transactions that underpin the UK economy. As such, we have a significant role to play in ensuring our services are not used to further a criminal purpose. As professionals, accountants must act with integrity and uphold the law, and must not engage in criminal activity.

This guidance is based on the law and regulations as of 13 July 2021.
It replaces the draft guidance published September 2020.

Please note that while most requirements remain, some requirements of the regulations relating to EU lists no longer apply since the UK has left the EU.

The AML Guidance for the Accountancy Sector (AMLGAS) covers the prevention of money laundering and the countering of terrorist financing. It is intended to be read by anyone who provides audit, accountancy, tax advisory, insolvency, or trust and company services in the UK and has been approved and adopted by the UK accountancy anti-money laundering supervisory bodies.

AML Guidance Explanatory Notes May 2022

Updated-CCAB-AML-Guidance-Explanatory-Notes-May-2022.

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Guidance (AMLGAS) provides Supplementary Anti-Money Laundering Guidance for Tax practitioners. This supplementary guidance is not standalone guidance; it must be read in conjunction with the Anti-Money Laundering Guidance for the Accountancy Sector 2022. The guidance focuses on tax specific issues for accounts.

Please note that, CIMA does not offer tax within the CIMA syllabus and additional tax training is recommended should you wish to offer that service within your practice. Please also remember that a fundamental principle of the CIMA Code of Ethics is competency and due care. It is therefore essential that you do not offer services in which you are not fully competent to do so.

The Accountancy AML Supervisors' Group (AASG), which includes CIMA and other accountancy sector supervisors named in the Money Laundering Regulations, have jointly published a AASG risk document highlighting key risks, and red-flag indicators, the AASG consider relevant to the accountancy sector.

The impact of money laundering is devastating – it enables serious organised crime such as modern slavery, drugs trafficking, fraud, corruption and terrorism. A comprehensive risk assessment is key to understanding the money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks that a business is exposed to.

By knowing and understanding the risks to which the accountancy sector is exposed, HM Government, law enforcement, and the professional body supervisors, as well as the accountancy firms themselves, can work together to ensure that criminals find it difficult to exploit accountancy services.

This will be regularly updated to reflect the UK’s National Risk Assessment and other emerging threats and trends.

The UKFIU publications and guidance on SARs:

SARs in action

SAR Glossary codes

SARs reporter booklet

Further guidance can be found on CIMA’s Reporting Suspicious Activity

The UKFIU launches its podcast. The podcast is for educational purposes and is part of the UKFIU’s new digital presence delivering a smarter approach to fighting crime, in line with UKFIU priorities of reducing harm, protecting the integrity of the UK economy and ensuring that there are no safe spaces for economic crime or terrorism financing.

The UKFIU Podcast (podbean.com)

Accountants, together with other professionals and financial institutions, are key gatekeepers for the financial system, facilitating vital transactions that underpin the Irish economy. As such, they have an important role to play in ensuring their services are not used to further or assist a criminal purpose.

This CCAB-I guidance is based on the law as of March 2022. It covers the prevention of money laundering and the countering of terrorist financing. It is intended to be read by any member who provides audit, accountancy, tax advisory, insolvency, or trust and company services (if regulated for this service by an accounting body) in the Republic of Ireland. 

The Joint Practice Group (JPG) have jointly published a Red Flags Training document. The JPG is made up of representatives of five professional bodies, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Chartered Accountants Ireland, Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Ireland, Association of International Accountants, and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants with input from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau and the Garda Financial Intelligence Unit (“FIU”).

The aim of this publication is to assist professional accountants and their staff in meeting the training requirements of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021.