The risk-based approach to AML: an opportunity not to be missed

by Philip Robinson, Financial Crime Sector Leader, FSA

We have a real opportunity before us for significant improvements to the UK’s anti-money laundering (AML) regime. The financial services sector is and always has been committed to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. But we have long needed a regime that strikes a better balance between costs and benefits. Firms still need to use the familiar AML tools - ID, monitoring, training, reporting and the rest - but now there is the opportunity to reshape things to deliver a better output at a more proportionate cost. We all need to learn how to create a regime that contributes more to the fight against the criminal and the terrorist, and to work together to deliver it. And with the regime now focusing increasingly on a risk-based approach we have the opportunity to get things right.