UK: The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019

The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019 were made on 20 December: see here. The accompanying explanatory memorandum is available here (pdf) and a shorter explanatory note is available here. Regulation 1(2) provides that the regulations will come into force later this week on January 10, with the exception of regulations 5(5)(c), 6 and 12(b). The regulations make amendments to the UK anti-money laundering framework arising from the amendments made to the fourth anti-money laundering directive (2015/849/EU) by the fifth anti-money laundering directive (2018/843/EU). These amendments will see the expansion of the UK's framework to include new businesses and activities, particularly concerning crypto-assets.

The changes being made by the 2019 regulations were the subject of a consultation last year: see here. Although the regulations have now been made, the Government's formal response to the consultation has not been published. The explanatory memorandum accompanying the regulations states, however, that "[the] government will soon publish its formal response ... This response document will summarise the stakeholder responses submitted and set out the legislative changes and reasoning behind them" (para. 10.7).