Regulators behaving suspiciously!

Report by Denis O’Connor. A Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment, Denis was a member of the British Bankers’ Association Money Laundering Committee from 2003-10 and a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group’s Board and Editorial Panel between 2010 and 2016. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial crime issues, both in the UK and abroad.

Money Laundering Bulletin can reveal, as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that, not only does the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) submit Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) about suspected money laundering or terrorist financing in regulated firms to the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), but the number of reports it submitted increased by 64% between 2016 and 2018. In stark contrast, however, other statutory regulators in the UK, such as the Prudential Regulatory Authority, the Gambling Commission and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), who also are each subject to the FOIA, refused to disclose how many, if any, SARs they submitted to the NCA.