INTERVIEW Smartsearch
Exactly who are you doing business with? AML specialist warns businesses to stay alert to a crime that accounts for almost £2 tn globally
T
he UK has the dubious things always do, the environment honour of being the has evolved, the technology has second-biggest money evolved, and it means that we laundering country in need to stay at the forefront the world, where an estimated to be able to combat money £88 bn worth is cleaned by laundering,” said Allen, who criminals every year. was the company’s youngest No firms are immune, as the board member at age 30. Collette Allen NatWest bank found to its cost Companies such as Smartsearch last year, when it pleaded guilty provide alternatives to document at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after verification and offer a “much more robust” admitting it failed to comply with anti-money system, verifying document information from laundering regulations. Experian, Equifax and Dow Jones, which is The omission saw almost £400 mn laundered hard to forge, Allen said. by one firm. Not that it should have been that However well intentioned, firms face hard to spot, given that the offending firm on one additional challenges because money occasion deposited £700,000 in cash in black bin laundering regulations can be highly complex bags at one NatWest branch. and companies sometimes fail to understand The bank was subsequently fined £265 mn, their level of exposure to these types of crimes. although the sum would have been much bigger UK governments have repeatedly come had NatWest not pleaded guilty, the judge on under proverbial fire for a perceived relaxed the case added. attitude toward oligarch money, especially It may be a hard fact to swallow for the finance when related to property acquisitions. industry, but, as Transparency International And it’s no small concern. According to says, “banks play a key role in facilitating money Transparency International figures, there’s laundering and feature prominently in almost roughly £6.7 bn worth of questionable funds in every major money laundering scandal.” property alone. A leading UK provider of anti-money Allen noted, “The responsibility is ultimately laundering software, Smartsearch, has developed a collective one. We are a target.... [A]ny large a fully compliant AML verification service that city is exposed to money laundering, so London can reputedly deliver business checks in less than is obviously at the height of that. three minutes. “The UK has some of the most stringent Speaking to Mortgage Introducer, the firm’s regulations, and a lot of the time we lead the way newly appointed COO, Collette Allen, with anti-money laundering [measures, but] the cautioned businesses against being lax in their government needs to do more around taxpayers anti-money laundering practices, as criminals are and British territories overseas, making sure that becoming increasingly sophisticated. we’re removing as many privacy laws that mean “The legacy forms of verifying identity, that people can hide behind corporate structures, such as collecting a passport or driving and they are working to do that, but these things licence, served a purpose at the time, but as take time.” Guide to Specialist Finance – brought to you by Mortgage Introducer
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