The Home Office has updated its guidance on the exemptions for the principal money laundering offences under POCA that mean those within the scope of them do not have to make a DAML SAR to proceed with a transaction. The guidance:
- confirms the increase in the threshold amount below which banks and other payment service providers do not have to report on amounts paid when operating an account – to £3,000 from 31 July 2025. But the guidance stresses that this threshold is only for the operating activities and would not apply, for example, to returning funds to the customer when terminating the relationship;
- confirms that the “paying away” exemption introduced by ECCTA, which allows any business in the regulated sector to pay away property when ending a customer relationship has also increased to £3,000 from 31 July. This exemption applies so long as the firm has complied with all relevant CDD obligations;
- notes the “mixed property” exemption that allows firms in the regulated sector to give customers access to the non-suspicious parts of their assets, and notes that it operates in parallel with the threshold amounts so long as firms keep at least the value of assets to which the suspicion relates;
- notes the separate reporting exemption introduced by ECCTA which creates a defence against the failure to report offence where the information only came to reporters from an immigration check; and
- reminds firms that they should always consider whether they need to make a SAR under s330 POCA.