Come on everybody, it's registration time!

You will recall that when the UK implemented the 3rd EU AML Directive in December 2009, it also made 22 existing organisations (like the AIA and IAB) responsible for regulating their members for the purposes of identifying and preventing money laundering and counter terrorist financing.

One of the new organisations which gained AML oversight responsibility was the UK Government’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

The following types of business are supervised by the OFT and will need to register:

• Consumer Credit Financial Institutions. These are businesses carrying on consumer credit lending activity who are neither authorised by the Financial Services Authority nor money service businesses supervised by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

• Estate agents. This covers those engaged in estate agency work as defined by Section 1 of the Estate Agents Act 1979.
  

From 31st July 2009, the OFT now requires all its supervised businesses to register before the 31 January 2010. Fees would appear to range from £115 to £2,300.

Failure to register could lead to the OFT imposing a civil penalty or taking a prosecution if business is carried on after 31 January 2010. Prosecution could result in a sentence of up to two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

Remember, if you are supervised by the OFT you need to:

1. Register with the OFT before the 31 January 2010 - see Registration page.
2. Comply with the Regulations - including
a) confirm customer identity and ongoing monitoring of business relationships
b) keep records for 5 years from the end of the business relationship or, if an occasional transaction, the end of the transaction
c) appoint a Nominated Officer
d) implement risk based compliance policies and procedures, and
train staff in law and procedures.
3. Make Suspicious Activity Reports

From an economic point of view, the timing isn’t brilliant.

However, it is now time to implement your new systems, register and comply.