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Office for Professional Body Anti-money Laundering Supervision

Treasury written question – answered at on 13 December 2018.

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Photo of Kelvin Hopkins Kelvin Hopkins Independent, Luton North

To ask the Chancellor of the exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision in improving standards in the financial sector.

Photo of John Glen John Glen Minister of State (Treasury) (City), The Economic Secretary to the Treasury

The Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) became operational in January 2018. OPBAS is part of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and supervises 22 professional body anti-money laundering (AML) supervisors which oversee the legal and accountancy sectors, as listed in the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. Neither OPBAS, nor the professional body AML supervisors (PBSs) supervise AML activities in the financial sector, which is instead supervised by the FCA. Fighting financial crime is a key priority for the FCA.

OPBAS’s key objectives are to reduce the harm of money laundering and terrorist financing by:

  • ensuring a robust and consistently high standard of supervision by the PBSs overseeing the legal and accountancy sectors;

  • facilitating collaboration, and information and intelligence sharing between PBSs, statutory supervisors, and law enforcement agencies.

    The recent Financial Action Task Force (FATF) review of the UK’s AML regime recommended that the UK should closely monitor the impact of OPBAS in undertaking its work.

By the end of 2018, OPBAS will have completed its initial supervisory assessments of all PBSs. The Government will continue to work closely with OPBAS to ensure that its plans and activities are effective and risk-based.

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  • (Citation: HC Deb, 13 December 2018, cW)

Chancellor of the Exchequer

The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.

The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.

The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.