Solicitors facing significant change to the UK’s anti-money laundering supervisory regime
21 Oct 2025
1 minute read
News
Solicitors will face significant change as the UK government has today announced the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be the single professional services supervisor (SPSS) as part of its reform of the anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing supervision regime. The role of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will be significantly reduced.
The FCA will work with the regulators and the professional services sector – including the legal sector – to improve the UK’s defences against money laundering.
Law Society of England and Wales president Mark Evans said: “The anti-money laundering (AML) regime is highly complex and we are concerned the government has chosen to create a single professional services supervisor (SPSS), which comes with many challenges.*
“The government must carefully manage the cost implications of implementing an SPSS model and avoid increasing regulatory burdens that could undermine the competitiveness of our world-beating legal services sector, especially given the extensive changes required.
“In its new role, the FCA should have a greater focus on proportionate risk-based regulation, rather than blind compliance. There must also be a careful transition between the SRA and the FCA, so that cost and complexity risks are mitigated for our members and their clients.
“It is vital that representative bodies, such as the Law Society, continue to play a central role in shaping and contributing to legal sector-wide guidance.
“Whilst we see significant challenges and would not have chosen this route, the Law Society stands ready to work with the government and the FCA as it implements the SPSS model. We will work to ensure our members are not adversely affected by the changes to the AML supervisory regime and that there is an informed understanding of the sector and levels of risks.”
Notes to editors
*In our response, the Law Society supported the implementation of professional body supervisor consolidation, which would create either one accountancy sector supervisor and one legal sector supervisor, with UK-wide jurisdiction, or one accountancy sector supervisor and one legal sector supervision for each jurisdiction (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland).
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