COLP Insider – 17th January 2020

If you are a COLP, you are more likely than not to have received an email from the SRA asking for a declaration about your AML systems and controls. The regulator has sent out nearly seven thousand of these potential banana skins. They are targeting those that are subject to the Money Laundering Regulations.The deadline for replies is fast approaching.

Haven’t received your email? Check your spam filter – a lot have ended up in junk folders. If it’s not there, check the SRA has your correct details. We are aware of some firms that are not properly authorised for work subject to the Money Laundering Regulations.

(Side note: if that sounds like you, now is probably a good time to be sticking your hand up. You will be asked to submit an ‘FA10’ application and supply DBS checks for all your owners and managers. It’s a pain.)

Practice notes and guidance

• New SRA Guidance – Unsolicited approaches (advertising) to members of the public – Advertising is still fine so long as it isn’t targeted at individuals or ‘unwelcome or intrusive’. So as before, no approaches in the street, but billboards/newspapers/leaflets etc. are okay. ‘Unwelcome’ is an interesting choice of word. Very subjective. One person’s pertinent information is another person’s junk mail.
• Updated SRA Guidance – European Lawyers practising in the UK – Required reading for all RELs and other European lawyers. (Psst – if eligible, you still have time to qualify as a solicitor by the Establishment Directive route, but this option will probably disappear some time in 2020).
• New Law Society Practice Note – House competitions
• New Law Society Practice Note – Mortgage fraud
• New Law Society Practice Note – Handling complaints
• New Law Society Practice Note – Immigration judicial review
• New Law Society Practice Note – Entity-based regulation
• New Law Society Guidance – Sanctions guide
• Updated Law Society Guidance – Suspicious activity reports

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