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Amendments to the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations

Amendments to the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations (MLR17) have been made under The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2022. Most of the amendments deal with Trust and Company Service Providers, which does not impact on insolvency work, but the two areas that members should be aware of are:

Changes to Regulation 30A

Regulation 30A deals with reporting discrepancies to the Registrar of Companies. From 1 April 2023, Reg 30(A) has been extended to be an ongoing requirement but does now require reporting of ‘material discrepancies’. A new Schedule to the MLR17 provides details of what is a ‘material discrepancy’ which includes:

  • A difference in name
  • Incorrect entry for nature of control
  • Incorrect entry for date of birth
  • Incorrect entry for nationality
  • Incorrect entry for correspondence address
  • Missing entry for a person of significant control or a registerable beneficial owner
  • Incorrect entry for the date the individual became a registrable person

Suspicious Activity Reports

From 1 September 2022, Reg 13 of the amendment regulations amends Reg 66 MLR17 to confirm that a Supervisory Authority (the IPA is a Supervisory Authority) can require a regulated person to provide a copy of any Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) made to the National Crime Agency (NCA). This amendment will allow the IPA (and other AML Supervisory Authorities) to access and be able to review and consider SARs for the quality of content and the timeliness of submissions, and will assist in the ongoing provision of guidance and training to members in this area.