Nick Barnard comments on FCA and the European money laundering directive in PaymentsCompliance

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is looking to overhaul its anti-money laundering regulation as the EU’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4th AMLD) piles greater pressure on financial institutions to combat technology-based crime.

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Nick Barnard, an associate at the law firm Corker Binning, told PaymentsCompliance that some of the major points of the directive are already established practice in the UK, such as the risk-based approach and the inclusion of tax crime. 

He said: “Others will have less significance than they might elsewhere in the community — having to carry out enhanced due-diligence on domestic as well as foreign politically-exposed persons, for example.”

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Barnard noted that the EU’s move towards recording the identity of “beneficial owners”, whose assets are held in another’s name, is also a particular issue for financial groups.

“Putting aside the data protection risks and the general concerns about the increasing amounts of information being automatically and arbitrarily gathered by governments and authorities, security and confidentiality of information on beneficial owners is a major commercial concern for some customers, as is the speed and convenience of the due diligence process,” he said.

Read the full article on PaymentsCompliance here.