- Publication Date
- 2021-07-06
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) undertook an audit of the law firm's compliance with the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs 2017), which came into force in June 2017. Law firms engaged in certain types of work are required to comply with these regulations, including performing a risk assessment to identify and assess the business's risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, known as the AML firm-wide risk assessment.
The SRA requested that all applicable firms complete a declaration confirming their compliance with an anti-money laundering firm-wide risk assessment by January 2020. The law firm in question failed to submit this declaration until April 2021. As a result, the SRA found this to be a breach of the relevant rules.
Following the audit, the SRA directed the law firm to pay a penalty of £800.