The NRA aims to identify, assess, understand, and mitigate the risks of ML and TF affecting the UK and is an activity mandated under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
Key takeaways from the NRA include:
➡️ Severity: The UK risk of ML remains high, with criminals using a diverse range of tactics such as cash-intensive operations and complex ownership structures to facilitate their illicit financing activities;
➡️ Convergence: There is an increasing convergence between ML, sanctions evasion, and kleptocracy, with sanction targets increasingly using methods and structures that were previously used to launder large sums of criminal funds;
➡️ Increased sector risk: Casinos, electronic money institutions (EMIs), payment service providers (PSPs), and crypto asset businesses are all sectors that have been identified as having an elevated risk of ML since the last NRA in 2020. EMIs, PSPs, and wealth management services have also seen an increase in TF risk since the last assessment; and
➡️ Crosscutting risks: Artificial intelligence, schools and universities, and football agents and clubs are all identified as factors presenting cross-cutting ML and TF risks.
✅ Firms should review their financial crime risk assessment methodologies, ensuring the latest insights from the NRA and wider regulatory developments are incorporated appropriately.
💡 Risk assessments are fundamental to financial crime compliance, guiding attention, time, and resources toward the most significant risks facing your business. At Plenitude, we go beyond identifying inherent and residual financial crime risks; we help implement the right systems, controls, and processes to align with your risk appetite.