The National Crime Agency (NCA) published an updated guidance note for anti-money laundering supervisors targeted at improving the quality of suspicious activity reports (SARs) to make the best possible use of SARs and to minimise unnecessary delays, particularly where a defence against money laundering (DAML) has been sought.
Last week, the National Crime Agency (NCA) published an updated guidance note for anti-money laundering supervisors targeted at improving the quality of suspicious activity reports (SARs) to make the best possible use of SARs and to minimise unnecessary delays, particularly where a defence against money laundering (DAML) has been sought.
The guidance strongly emphasises that SARs should be clear and concise and that all information fields should be completed as fully and in as much detail as possible. The reason for submission of a SAR should be explicit and include details of who is involved, how they are involved, a description of what and where the criminal property is and its estimated value, how and when the circumstances arose and the basis for the reporter’s suspicion. Where this information is not known, any details the reporter can provide which may reasonably assist should be included. The guidance also confirms that, when requesting a DAML, it is important to include a description of the prohibited act that the reporter wants a DAML to carry out.
A major consequence of submitting a SAR that does not contain this prescribed information is that a request for a DAML may not be assessed and the case may be closed.
This guidance acts as a useful checklist for what information should be included in a SAR. Failure to include such information may result in a DAML no longer being available and, if the prohibited activity is undertaken, a criminal offence being committed.
The outcome of the Employment Tribunal claim brought by Gulnaz Raja against Starling Bank Limited (1) (Starling), and Matthew Newman (2) was reported last month.
Logistics company Eddie Stobart has been fined £133,000, after a series of failures which took place whilst excavation work was carried out, exposing its staff to asbestos.
This article is the second in a series to help firms take a practical approach to complying with the ‘cross-cutting rules’ within the new ‘Consumer Duty’ (CD) framework. The article summarises what it seems the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seeking to achieve from the applicable rules (section 2 below) and potential complications arising from legal considerations (section 3).
Claims arising from interest-only mortgages have been farmed in volume. Many such claims to date have sought to drive a narrative that interest-only mortgages are an inherently toxic product and brokers were negligent simply for suggesting them. Taylor is a helpful recalibration, focussing instead on what the monies raised by the mortgage product were being used for and whether the client understood the inherent risks.
Two directors of a construction company were fined after failing to ensure the safe removal of asbestos from a plot of land. On 14 and 15 November 2021, Directors Anthony Sumner and Neil Brown, of Waterbarn Limited were involved in the uncontrolled removal of asbestos material from a plot of land in Grasscroft, Oldham.
An engineering company in Tyne and Wear was fined £20,000 after a worker fractured his pelvis and suffered internal injuries after falling through a petrol station forecourt canopy, whilst he was replacing the guttering.
The Digital Services Act (the “DSA”) has today (27 October) been given the go-ahead by the EU Council and will enter into force by early 2024.
Created at the end of the Brexit transition period, Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law that consists of EU-derived legislation retained in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This was never intended to be a permanent arrangement as parliament promised to deal with retained EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (the “Bill”).
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have announced they will be carrying out a programme of inspections to primary and secondary school establishments from September 2022. The inspections will assess how schools are managing the risks from asbestos and meeting the Duty to Manage requirements, set out in Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
This article is the first in a series aimed to help firms get to grips on a practical basis with the ‘cross-cutting rules’ within the new ‘Consumer Duty’ framework.
