The Institute carried out 1,088 monitoring visits across its supervised firms during the year, with 80.7% assessed as compliant or generally compliant. It recently made changes to its supervision methodology, to focus on the effectiveness of AML policies and procedures rather than their technical compliance or existence, with compliance remaining high.
A total of 215 firms were required to undertake follow-up action to improve their processes. Thirty-nine firms were sanctioned and fined a combined total of £92,025, and one member was excluded.ICAEW supervises 11,000 member firms in relation to money laundering. It regularly produces resources to support its supervised population, including risk bulletins, webinars and articles, as well as its award-winning anti-money laundering training film, All Too Familiar, produced in collaboration with HMRC.
The Institute uses a range of tools and methods in its approach to AML supervision and targets its resources where the risk is highest.
Duncan Wiggetts, ICAEW Chief Officer, Professional Standards, said:
“As this report shows, we spend a lot of time and effort helping the firms we supervise to understand how they can avoid becoming unwitting professional enablers of money laundering. To ensure continuing improvement, we decided this year to raise the bar for a firm to be ‘compliant’, so it is pleasing, in that context, to see continued high levels of compliance. The report also shows that, where firms and individuals fall below the standards we expect of them, we will not hesitate to take enforcement action against them.
“In order for bodies such as ours to continue investing in resources and capabilities to improve our supervisory work, we call on the Government to issue the long-delayed feedback statement into the future of AML supervision and reconfirm the important role which professional bodies should play in this area.”
ENDS
Contact: ICAEW media office, ruth.pott-negrine@icaew.com or 07557 161315
Read ICAEW's anti-money laundering (AML) supervision report for 2023/24.
ICAEW’s role as an improvement regulator
Our role as an improvement regulator is to strengthen confidence and trust in those regulated by ICAEW. We do this by enabling, evaluating and enforcing the standards expected by the profession, oversight regulators and government. ICAEW’s regulatory and disciplinary roles are separated from ICAEW’s other activities through internal governance so that we can monitor, support or take steps to ensure change if standards are not met. These roles are carried out by the Professional Standards Department and overseen by the independent ICAEW Regulatory Board (IRB).
Our role is to:
- authorise firms and individuals to undertake work regulated by law: audit, local audit, investment business, insolvency and probate;
- support professional standards in general accountancy practice through our Practice Assurance scheme;
- provide robust anti-money laundering supervision and monitoring;
- monitor registered firms and individuals to ensure they operate in accordance with laws, regulations and expected professional standards;
- investigate complaints and hold ICAEW Chartered Accountants and students, ICAEW-supervised firms and regulated and affiliated individuals to account where they fall short of standards;
- respond and comment on proposed changes to the law and regulation; and
- educate through guidance and advice to help ICAEW’s regulated community comply with laws, regulations and expected professional standards.