The Law Society's Financial Crime Symposium was held on 15 May
2012.
More than 120 delegates attended the event, which featured
speakers from organisations including the Financial Action
Taskforce (FATF), the Money Laundering Taskforce , the Serious
Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and a range of law firms, financial
institutions and government departments.
The symposium covered current and future issues in anti-money
laundering. The plenary sessions focused on the challenges of
targeting and preventing financial crime at home and abroad.
Valerie Schilling from the Financial Action Taskforce and the
European Commission's Tobias Mackie provided an international
perspective, while the Home Office's John Thompson outlined how the
government's Fighting Fraud Together strategy and new National
Crime Agency will help to tackle economic crime in the UK.
In the breakout sessions, several speakers discussed the impact
of financial crime on specific market sectors. With art-smuggling
believed to be the second most lucrative crime in the world after
drug dealing, Professor Janet Ulph from the University of Leicester
set out how art and antiquities can be used to launder money and
the challenges facing high-value dealers in this area.
Another theme was the effectiveness of existing anti-money
laundering procedures. Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, James Russell Mitra
and Anders Sejer Pedersen debated the pros and cons of different
suspicious activity reporting regimes. There were also lively
discussions on the impact of anti-money laundering and
anti-corruption legislation on legitimate market competition.
The developments being considered as a result of the FATF
recommendations led to strong pleas from the private sector for
greater support on meeting obligations relating to beneficial
ownership, equivalence and politically-exposed persons. Achieving
proportionality and effectiveness in due diligence requirements was
a key focus of many sessions. There was clear understanding from
policy-makers and law enforcement about the challenges faced by
practitioners, and both showed willingness to work with the private
sector on these issues in the future.
The substantial international content and seniority of the
speakers was commented upon favourably by delegates. With
significant changes to financial crime fighting obligations being
considered in the coming months, we hope that the symposium will
facilitate constructive dialogue between the private sector, law
enforcement agencies and policy-makers, and lead to greater
understanding of shared aims.