UK: OPBAS report - law/accounting professional body AML supervision - significant weaknesses found

OPBAS - the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision - has published the results of its assessment of AML supervision and controls within the professional body supervisors (PBSs) responsible for law and accountancy: see here (pdf).

The report notes (at para. 2.6) that, in 2020/21, the PBSs "... were generally compliant with the technical requirements of the MLRs, where assessed. As the reports for the first two years of OPBAS show, there has been considerable progress. However, when focusing on effectiveness in 2020/21, we found differing levels of achievement and some significant weaknesses. We expect PBSs to continue investing and improving, focusing their supervisory efforts to have the greatest impact on the prevention of money laundering and, working with other authorities, to make the UK an inhospitable place for criminals".