The latest assessment from the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) has highlighted improvements in the way money laundering risks are monitored across the UK’s legal and accountancy sectors, but the watchdog has warned that significant weaknesses remain.
While supervision has progressed since OPBAS was established in 2018, the report makes clear that enforcement and compliance standards across many firms are still inconsistent, leaving gaps that could expose the financial system to illicit activity.
OPBAS notes that professional body supervisors have strengthened their approach in recent years, improving oversight mechanisms and raising awareness of anti-money laundering obligations among regulated professionals.
However, the review also emphasises that persistent shortcomings remain within supervised firms, particularly around the practical implementation of AML frameworks. These weaknesses come at a time when regulators are intensifying scrutiny of breaches linked to the Money Laundering Regulations.
Recent enforcement activity illustrates the scale of the issue. HMRC issued 336 penalty notices between April and September 2025 alone for violations related to the regulations. Some of these sanctions reached as high as £104,000, signalling that authorities are becoming increasingly willing to penalise firms that fail to meet their compliance responsibilities. Despite these actions, regulators still see repeated issues linked to poor governance, weak internal controls and gaps in customer due diligence processes.
Responding to the findings, SmartSearch CEO Phil Cotter said the report highlights the urgent need for stronger enforcement and broader adoption of technology-driven compliance tools as regulatory expectations continue to rise.
Cotter said, “The OPBAS 2024/25 report delivers a stark message: baseline AML compliance in legal and accountancy sectors is adequate, but effectiveness remains inconsistent, and some poor practice persists.
“The enforcement figures tell the story. HMRC issued 336 penalty notices between April and September 2025 for Money Laundering Regulations breaches, with fines reaching as high as £104,000. The majority were for failure to register properly, but 33 penalties were issued for substantive failures, inadequate risk assessments, missing AML controls, insufficient staff training, and deficient customer due diligence.
More concerning is OPBAS’s finding that Professional Body Supervisors still report ‘common breaches of inadequately documented policies and procedures, customer due diligence, client risk assessment or records and no or inadequate firm-wide risk assessment’ among their supervised populations. These aren’t new issues; they’re persistent failures that call into question whether firms are truly taking their obligations seriously.”
Cotter also highlighted several structural weaknesses identified in the report, including inconsistent oversight approaches among professional body supervisors and enforcement frameworks that can allow firms multiple opportunities to rectify issues before facing meaningful penalties. The scale of the challenge is also considerable, with around 41,400 firms operating under professional body supervision, making comprehensive oversight difficult when processes remain largely manual or fragmented.
Cotter went on, “The report identifies several critical gaps: some PBSs take an ‘overly member-centric’ approach that hinders robust supervision; enforcement remains weak with firms receiving multiple chances to remediate before facing consequences; and manual, inconsistent processes struggle to achieve the coverage needed across 41,400 supervised firms.”
Looking ahead, regulatory oversight may soon tighten further. Plans for the Financial Conduct Authority to become the single AML supervisor for professional services could significantly reshape the landscape, potentially raising expectations for governance, reporting and compliance infrastructure across the sector.
“With the FCA set to become the single AML supervisor for professional services, the bar will rise. Technology is essential to closing these gaps—not as a ‘nice to have,’ but as the only viable way to achieve consistent, effective compliance at scale,” said Cotter.
For firms navigating this evolving regulatory environment, technology is increasingly being positioned as a key component of modern AML frameworks. Automated solutions are designed to reduce manual workloads, standardise compliance procedures and provide stronger audit trails, helping organisations demonstrate adherence to regulatory requirements.
“SmartSearch provides the automated identity verification, beneficial ownership identification, real-time sanctions screening, and ongoing monitoring that professional services firms need. Our platform turns compliance from a manual, error-prone burden into an efficient, audit-ready process.
Cotter finished, “The message is clear: assisted compliance and manual processes won’t cut it anymore. Firms need robust, technology-enabled AML systems, before the FCA takes over supervision and expectations increase further.”
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