The resounding victory Thursday of Britain's Conservative Party will mean modest tweaks rather than sharp changes to the U.K.'s fight against financial crime in the coming five years, say analysts.
In the messy art of prognostication, everything is overly easy and nothing exact, not even compliance expectations. But one thing government officials and financial industry representatives seem certain of: 2015 will prove just as challenging as the past year for AML professionals.
British officials will soon review the promises and risks of alternative payment systems, including virtual currencies, as part of a broad initiative to promote advances in financial technology.
With plenty of convincing reasons, representatives of the law enforcement and compliance industry say the coming year is fraught with serious challenges.
As the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority navigates its first week of existence, the agency's newly released business plan promises a tough approach on fighting financial crime with a focus on complex cases.
Though none can predict the future, one thing in the AML world seems certain: the jobs of compliance officers won't get any easier in 2013.
U.K. financial regulators will likely only get tougher on British banks that violate anti-money laundering laws in the coming year, possibly going so far as to prosecute individuals, according to Jonathan Fisher QC, a London-based barrister.
After a busy year for federal sanctions officials, large banks with international footprints are increasingly instituting deeper, standalone audits of their related policies and procedures, say compliance officers and consultants.
Not only can banks in the UK expect a number of anti-money laundering enforcement actions from the Financial Securities Authority, despite the fact the agency shuts down next year, investment banks and individuals in financial services can also expect a host of non-AML enforcement actions.
The United Kingdom outlined Monday its plans for a new regulatory agency that will oversee consumer protection regulations and anti-money laundering compliance programs at banks.
One out of every three British banks is unwilling to turn away customers with an "unacceptable" level of risk for money laundering, the United Kingdom's chief financial regulator said in a report Wednesday.
The United Kingdom's chief financial regulator is set to announce next week a multi-million pound monetary penalty against a bank for weak anti-money laundering controls, according to an individual familiar with the matter.
Financial institutions operating in the U.K. could be among the first companies fined under a new British anti-bribery law, according to speakers at an anti-money laundering conference in Amsterdam Monday.
A stringent new British anti-bribery law will be implemented before the end of the year despite concerns from the business community and the Cameron government, according to the measure's authors.
U.S. financial institutions and other companies will have additional anti-money laundering and anti-bribery monitoring duties when a new U.K. law takes effect next year, according to a U.K. regulator.