Money laundering legal compliance while remote working

It is important to recognise that you and your firm, if covered by the Money Laundering Regulations, must ensure compliance with the statutory obligations that apply, at all times.

One of the issues with remote working is the inability to meet clients face-to-face, so it is important that you adopt other checks that can be used to address any apparent risks or red flags; an inability to conduct face-to-face due diligence does not mean you cannot complete client due diligence.

Other methods of carrying out client due diligence are available, and these should be used as appropriate to ensure you are able to confirm the identity of your clients.

As applies in normal circumstances, you need to adopt a risk-based approach to your client due diligence processes.

The use of electronic systems for identifying and verifying clients is now well established in many firms and could be adopted by others where normal checking processes can’t be completed. As detailed in the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, you would need to ensure that any online identity system you use is secure from fraud and misuse and is capable of providing an appropriate level of assurance that the person claiming a particular identity is, in fact, the person with that identity.

Other ways of checking the identity and verification of clients include: gathering and analysing additional data to triangulate the evidence provided by the client, verifying telephone numbers, emails and/or physical addresses by sending codes to the client’s address to validate access to accounts, and using live and/or recorded digital video of the client showing their face and original photo identification documents.

The responsibility remains with you to ensure the identification and verification of all clients, even if you agree with another party that you can rely on the due diligence they have undertaken on the client.

As with all other areas of compliance, you should ensure that you make and retain details of what you have done and why so that you can justify your actions/decisions should they be questioned in the future.

The above should also be considered where you are also looking to re-identify clients who have previously provided identity documents that now require updating.

Just because you are working remotely does not take away the obligation for you to ensure your staff are appropriately trained in money laundering related matters, especially when training is available online.

You need to assess whether your AML policies and procedures need to be updated and if they do, that any changes you make are reflected in your firm’s AML firm-wide risk assessment.

Another aspect you need to consider when assessing new forms of client due diligence is whether there are any data protection issues to consider. For example, you may need to obtain a data subject’s consent where you are looking to use and store digital video or photography. As part of the protection of personal data, you should consider whether the adoption of encryption would be appropriate when communicating such information via email.

As a reminder, it is for you to satisfy yourself that you have fully complied with your obligations under the Money Laundering Regulations.

We are committed to helping our customers in these difficult times, and can provide various resources and services that can help you protect your firm, all of which can be accessed remotely, including:

• Compliance helpline
• Compliance webinars with Q&A sessions
• E-learning training library
• Learning management system (LMS)
• Risk & compliance system and advisory services
• Policies & precedents bank
  
  

Download our brochure for more details on how we can help you comply with your Anti-Money Laundering obligations.