Treasury and the Home Office have published the 2020 National Risk Assessment under the MLRs and presented it to Parliament. The report:
- looks at what has been done in recent years, including in terms of bringing new sectors within the scope of the MLRs, increasing and improving supervision and trying to remove barriers to information sharing;
- highlights the start of the SARs reform project, and the continuing reform of Companies House, limited partnerships and trust registration;
- notes that UK achieved the best result to date in the current FATF evaluation round;
- says the traditional high-risk areas of financial services, money services business and cash remain, but with new possibilities for criminals to exploit fintech;
- looks at the strategic priorities in the Economic Crime Plan;
- reviews the key laws, supervisors and related enforcement agencies;
- outlines domestic and international threats for money laundering and terrorist finance;
- looks at the impact of Covid-19 and the response; and
- includes chapters dedicated to each highlighted sector of risk, including, for each, the risk score, a summary and then detail of specific risks. Unsurprisingly, financial services has the most high risks, particularly in retail banking and payments, while accountancy, legal services and companies, partnerships and trusts are considered to be high risk for money laundering. Cash and money services businesses are also, predictably, still high risk. The property sector has been upgraded to be a high risk for money laundering, although estate and letting agency businesses are medium;