Compliance Monitor

A coordinating European agency is to tighten supervision and raise standards for anti-money laundering compliance across member states. Ted Datta explores the substantial implications for many UK-based financial institutions. The European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) was established on 1 July 2025, marking a significant step towards centralising EU supervision and enhancing its approach to tackling financial crime through a dedicated regulatory framework.

The legal battle over motor finance commissions has resulted in a partial victory for lenders: in two of three conjoined cases, the Supreme Court ruled that credit brokers owed no fiduciary duties to customers. Yet the Court’s finding of an unfair relationship in the other claim may still expose firms to substantial payouts. Adam Samuel analyses the judgment and its loose ends.

A threat assessment from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation is a wake-up call concerning the geopolitical use of cryptoassets to bypass traditional financial systems and compliance mechanisms. It is “almost certain” that suspected sanctions breaches are underreported and “highly likely” that UK cryptoasset firms have been exposed to malignant Russian and North Korean entities, reports Fred Saugman.

The former fund manager is heading to the Upper Tribunal to challenge a £5.9 million FCA fine and ban for exercising a “defective and unreasonably narrow understanding of his responsibilities” when director and investment manager of Woodford Management Ltd. His relationship with the firm’s Risk and Compliance teams were identified as a significant part of failures that also saw the firm fined £40m.

Motor finance firms need to “refresh their estimates” of the amounts they are likely to pay to customers under the redress scheme which will start next year. Administration costs must also be factored into their provisions, according to the regulator, which will launch a six-week consultation in early October.

The bank has been fined for the third and fourth times in a decade for poor financial crime controls — in breaches that could have been avoided by basic steps such as checking the FCA register. The current fines, totalling £42 million, relate to the opening and servicing of business accounts for two corporate clients, each of which has been the subject of a criminal investigation. Start benefiting from our expert analysis straight away. Click here to subscribe.

The FCA, PRA and HM Treasury are working on a range of proposals to refine, clarify and make more flexible the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) for the 37,000 firms who have to comply with its rules. While the cost-savings per firm will be fairly small – averaging £117 a year – the changes are likely to be welcomed.

Unexpected mass redress schemes are being targeted by a set of proposals from the FCA to understand and respond to the causes earlier, to help firms take action sooner and to improve “operational efficiency” at the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The threshold at which a prospectus is needed for further share issuances is to be lifted nearly fourfold when new rules come into force on 19 January. The trigger point will be set at 75 per cent of existing share capital, up from the current 20 per cent. In a parallel move, a single disclosure standard for corporate bond prospectuses will be introduced to cover both large and small bonds, making it easier for bonds to be offered in smaller tranches.

Draft legislation before Parliament will remove third-party lenders from the exemption for BNPL regulation. Emma Radmore and Stephen Wilson examine what the changes mean, who they will affect and what happens next.