PIMFA
FINANCIAL CRIME
Financial Crime is broadly any criminal conduct relating to money or financial services, including, for example, fraud, money laundering, the misuse of information (such as insider trading), bribery and corruption, handling the proceeds of crime, financing terrorism, or cybercrime. According to the Office of National Statistics, fraud was the most common crime type between April 2022-March 2023, with an estimated 3.5 million incidents of fraud in the UK experienced by adults aged 16 and over.
The PIMFA Financial Crime Committee facilitates discussion across all significant matters of financial crime, ensuring that member firms are kept fully informed and compliant with legislative and regulatory developments and are provided with the latest intelligence, approaches and tools to combat financial crime effectively.
The guide in collaboration with Avyse offers practical, risk-based examples and recommendations tailored to the specific structures, client profiles, and transaction patterns typically found in the investment and wealth management sector
latest news
FCA Launch of Firm Checker to fight financial crime
The FCA has published a new tool in response to FCA research that showed c.800,000 people reported losing money to investments or pensions‑related scams (in the 12 months to May 2024).
To help fight financial crime the FCA has launched Firm Checker. This tool aims to help consumers avoid scams by allowing them to check if a firm is authorised and has the correct permissions to provide services.
Read more here.
Access the Firm Checker tool here.
FCA failings in financial crime controls
The FCA has fined Nationwide Building Society £44m for inadequate anti-financial crime systems and controls between October 2016 to July 2021.
Historical issues noted by the regulator include ineffective systems for due diligence, risk assessments and transaction monitoring.
Read more details here.
Serious Fraud Office – Guidance to Evaluate Corporate Compliance
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has published updated guidance on evaluating corporate compliance programmes.
The guidance sets out six scenarios in which the SFO may need to evaluate an organisation’s compliance programme, e.g. when considering prosecutions, potential defences to corporate offences and deferred prosecution agreements.
The publication includes evaluation criteria for the new offence of failure to prevent fraud under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) with assessment of potential defences of reasonable procedures.
Read the guidance here.
