The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK's financial regulator, today issued a warning to some financial firms over what it found to be common failures in financial crime controls。The bureau said it had sent a letter to the CEO of the "Annex 1" business setting out the results of our recent assessment of how the business is complying with money laundering regulations.。

Businesses include a number of lending institutions, safe-keeping providers, currency brokers and financial leasing companies that engage in specific activities, meaning they must be registered with the FCA and supervised to comply with the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Payor Information) Regulations (MLRs) 2017.。About 1,000 Annex 1 registered companies are not authorized and are not subject to the FCA's broader regulation.。

Financial crime is a priority for the regulator, and preliminary results of its data-oriented review of a sample of Annex 1 companies indicate that some companies are still not doing the basics.。Common problems identified by the FCA include:

• Differences between company registration activities and actual activities。
• The monitoring of financial crimes has not kept pace with business growth。
• Failure to properly assess the risk of own or customer activity。
• Inadequate resource allocation and oversight of financial crime issues and requirements。

All Annex 1 businesses should, within the next six months, assess their financial crime control measures against common weaknesses identified by the FCA.。If we find something that falls short of our expectations, we should take immediate action to address it.。

Businesses may face regulatory action, including possible enforcement action, if they do not take appropriate steps to respond to the FCA's "Dear CEO" letter。

Emad Aladhal, director of the FCA's expert team to reduce and prevent financial crime and fraud, said: "Poor financial crime controls make it easier for criminals to abuse the financial system and undermine the integrity of UK markets.。We have made the fight against financial crime a priority and while progress has generally been made, the companies in annex 1 to this report are not subject to our full regulatory regime, but these issues must be addressed.。"