UK: FSA provides notes for on-line broking and spread betting companies

The UK's financial services regulator, the FSA, has completed a review of the money laundering risks posed by on-line broking and spread betting companies. Whilst saying that the firms visited had done a generally good job, there were some areas for improvement that the FSA considered "generic."

First is what it saw as an undue reliance on the "postal concession" for non-face to face business. This is an interesting comment given that the UK's position is largely replicated in the EU's Second Money Laundering Directive. Thus the problem identified by the FSA is likely to become more common across the EU and countries that follow EU models in draft their laws.

The FSA also warned of is concerns as to low levels of transaction monitoring across all firms. The FSA implies that computerised monitoring would be more satisfactory that relying on staff vigilance and manual intervention.

The FSA's notes are at The FSA's Website