Locations
Financial Action Task Force
The risk analysis conducted as part of the NRA is set against the backdrop of Ireland’s membership of the Financial Action Task Force (the “FATF”). The FATF is an inter-governmental policy making body which promotes the effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. This is done by way of recommendations which have been developed by the FATF (last updated in 2012) and are seen as the international standard. Ireland has been a member of the FATF since 1991 and it is noteworthy that the conducting of a NRA is a key recommendation of the FATF.
Compliance with the recommendations is monitored via “mutual evaluation” of each member which are conducted on an ongoing basis. The last mutual evaluation review of Ireland was carried out in 2006.
Ireland received partially compliant ratings for certain core and key recommendations. As a result, Ireland was placed into the regular follow-up process. However, in June 2013, it was recognised that Ireland had made significant progress in terms of strengthening the legislative framework in the area of anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing through the implementation of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 and the Criminal Justice Act 2013 and was removed from the regular follow up process. The next mutual evaluation for Ireland is due to take place in November 2016.
National Risk Assessment
The NRA provides a risk assessment for the various assessed sectors in terms of potential money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
These assessments were carried out following extensive collaboration and consultation between with State authorities, private sector representatives, law enforcement agencies, and other relevant stakeholders. A number of risk factors relevant to the various sectors were considered including:
- Nature, scale and complexity of the sector;
- Products and services offered by the sector;
- Customers within the sector;
- Distribution channels relevant to the sector; and
- Geographical reach of the sector.
As a result of the process, the NRA has identified the money laundering risk associated with the retail banking sector in Ireland as “High”, while the legal services and accountancy services sectors are both rated as “Medium-High”.
It will be necessary for the NRA to be reviewed and updated on a periodic basis to ensure that any risks and weaknesses in the ML/TF regime are addressed.
Following the publication of the NRA, it is likely that additional regulatory obligations will be imposed on various sectors, to include the accounting sector, in order to address any of the concerns raised in the NRA. We will continue to monitor the developments in this area and will provide updates as they become available.
Click here for the link to the National Risk Assessment. Authors: Natasha Forde and Aideen Ryan