Money laundering: new and wide-ranging registration obligations

From 1 April 2008, extensive new registration obligations will be introduced by the Money Laundering Regulations 2007. These apply to Money Service Businesses, High Value Dealers, Trust or Company Service Providers and Accountancy Service Providers.

Failure to register with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is a criminal offence, as is carrying out any of the specified activities without being registered. In general, the obligations do not apply to individuals or businesses governed by relevant statutory or recognised professional bodies (e.g. Financial Services Authority, Law Society and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales etc), but will catch many other businesses, and in some cases individual directors.

To find out if the new registration obligations apply to you, Wragge & Co's experts in corporate governance have put together an analysis of the HMRC's guidance notes.