AML non-compliance at 38%

Compliance with money laundering regulations is not optional. Yet, our reviews have found 38% of firms are not compliant. Efforts to stop money laundering (and by extension the crime it enables) must be driven by firm cultures that support effective decision-making and action.

During an anti-money laundering (AML) review you may be advised to tailor or amend your AML processes, and provided you engage with your AML supervisor, it can be a straightforward task, however if a positive culture is not driving these changes, you could open yourselves up to future failures.

“Culture is like DNA,” Clive Adamson, then Director of Supervision at the FCA and now chair and non-executive director at several large financial institutions, said 10 years ago. “It shapes judgements, ethics and behaviours displayed at those key moments, big or small, that matter to the performance and reputation of firms and the service that it provides to customers and clients.”

A decade ago, Adamson was addressing an industry conference about the need to build cultures that prioritise fair outcomes for customers alongside trust in the sector – a culture of doing the right thing rather than of ticking the right boxes.

“The responsibility for ensuring the right outcomes for customers resides with everyone at the firm, led by senior management, and not something delegated to compliance or control functions,” he said.
 

Source Financial Accountant click here to read more.