Government publishes its 2020 National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing

On 17 December 2020, the UK Government published its National Risk Assessment (NRA) of money laundering and terrorist financing. The last report was published in 2017.

Here are some key findings to note:

Money laundering risk scores increase:

• for property, the risk score is increased from ‘Medium’ to ‘High‘
• for estate agencies, the score moves from ‘Low’ to ‘Medium‘
• for letting agencies, the score assigned is ‘Medium‘
• the art market assigned a risk score of ‘High‘ 
• the risk of abuse of legal services remains ‘High‘, with conveyancing among the services most at risk of exploitation

HMRC supervisors highlight failings: 

• 50% of estate agency businesses advertising property over £5 million had failed to register with HMRC for AML supervision or have failed to pay their annual fees
• HMRC found many firms did not have sufficient training in place for staff

Covid-19 Effect

• The pandemic has increased the risks and threats of money laundering and terrorist financing within the UK
• Criminals continue to seek and find new ways to circumvent the system and launder funds
  
  

READ THE FULL REPORT