2017 National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

The UK government has committed to publishing a second National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing ahead of the Financial Action Task Force  Mutual Evaluation, which will commence in Autumn 2017.

As part of this, HM Treasury are requesting initial evidence submissions from the legal services sector against a comprehensive set of money-laundering and terrorist finance risk factors to build a full picture by mid-April 2017.

To that end, we very much appreciate your taking the time to complete the questions which follow. Your answers will form the basis of our response on behalf of the Scottish legal profession.

Question Title

* 1. Please provide a description of the nature and size of your firm and the services and/or products which you offer.

Responses to the following questions will enable us to gain a detailed understanding of the different ML and TF risks firms face and allow us to analyse risks posed by different services, products, transactions and business and customer relationships in order to assess the vulnerability of the sector:

Question Title

* 2. In your view, to what extent would it be possible to use the products or services offered by your firm to mask the source or ownership of funds or assets?

Question Title

* 3. In your view, to what extent would it be possible to use the products or services offered by your firm to mask the destination or purpose of funds or assets?

Question Title

* 4. What is the level of complexity of the services or products offered by your firm? (i.e. what range of products or services are offered, what range of products or services does the typical customer use, and to what extent is there interplay between these products or services?)

Question Title

* 5. What is your firm’s level of exposure to high risk jurisdictions, persons, business relationships or products? In particular, which categories of jurisdiction, person, business relationship or product do you consider pose the greatest level of ML and TF risk for your firm?

Question Title

* 6. To what extent do the products or services offered by your firm facilitate transactions or transfers of funds or assets between persons, locations and product types?

Question Title

* 7. If your firm offers these products or services, how quickly can the transactions or transfers involved be completed?

Question Title

* 8. If your firm offers these products or services, what levels of volume and frequency characterise transactions facilitated by the products or services offered?

Responses to the following questions will enable us to understand the likelihood that these vulnerabilities will be exploited and that threats will materialise in the sector:

Question Title

* 9. How accessible are the products or service offered by your firm, both for providers and consumers? (i.e. to what extent are there barriers to becoming a business or customer?)

Question Title

* 10. To what extent is suspicious activity involving the products or services offered by your firm likely to be reported to law enforcement?

Question Title

* 11. What is your existing knowledge of the extent of ML and TF through the products or services your firm offers?

Responses to the following questions will enable us to assess the extent to which the inherent risks within the sector are mitigated by AML/CTF activity:

Question Title

* 12. In your view, to what extent does law enforcement have the capacity and capability to mitigate the ML and TF risks in the legal services sector?

Question Title

* 13. In your view, to what extent do supervisors have the capacity and capability to mitigate the ML and TF risks in the legal services sector?

Question Title

* 14. In your view, to what extent do firms such as yours have the capacity and capability to mitigate their ML and TF risks?

Finally:

Question Title

* 15. Please provide your assessment of any further factors contributing to the vulnerability of the sector, the likelihood of threats materialising in the sector or anything mitigating the risk within the sector.

T