The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) have just published a report criticizing a number of major banks’ shortcomings in dealing with the threat of money laundering. Some of the key findings include:

• Long term risk of association with the counterparty was rarely considered if short-term risk was deemed to be low.
• Even when counterparties were determined to be high risk, effective enhanced due diligence (EDD) measures were not properly implemented.
• Shortcomings in the banks’ ability to properly identify politically exposed persons (PEPs) and mitigate this risk effectively.
• Ongoing due diligence practices were insufficient when dealing with higher risk counterparties .
• General anti money laundering (AML) culture was weak, with many not recognising the actual threat this posed.

QGen offers a wide range of services to help companies deal with the threat of money laundering and terrorist financing – a danger to all companies whether regulated or not. QGen’s management team has extensive hands on experience, in a variety of industries, implementing and managing effective AML programmes. Some of the services we offer include:

• Consultation on existing AML processes and procedures and improving them.
• Experienced operational staff to manage our clients’ AML processes and procedures for due diligence (both initial and ongoing) for legal and natural persons.
• Sanctions and PEP screening for both initial and ongoing due diligence purposes.
• Experienced operational staff to manage our clients’ transaction monitoring requirements for ongoing due diligence purposes.

With our proven track record of assisting clients in all of these areas, contact us today to see how we can help your organisation mitigate its AML risk.