Supervision of anti-money laundering standards in the legal and accountancy sectors has improved since 2018, but enforcement and compliance still fall short in key areas, according to the latest report from the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS).
OPBAS said oversight of money laundering risks has strengthened since it was created in 2018, but warned that persistent weaknesses remain across parts of the legal and accountancy sectors.
The report highlights ongoing concerns around poor risk assessments, weak customer due diligence and inadequate anti-money laundering controls, despite hundreds of penalties being issued for breaches of the Money Laundering Regulations.
Data referenced in the report shows that HMRC issued 336 penalty notices between April and September 2025 for breaches of the regulations, with fines reaching as high as £104,000.
Phil Cotter, chief executive of SmartSearch, said the findings underline the need for stronger enforcement and wider adoption of automated compliance technology as regulatory expectations increase.
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
