At Legl we pride ourselves in building smart software working with brilliant people, speaking of which we're thrilled to welcome AML influencer Kayleigh Smale to our team.

Join us in welcoming Kayleigh and learn about navigating the complexities of KYB compliance with Legl solutions at our webinar on February 27 at 12pm.

If you haven't had an SRA visit yet, it's important to know that they recently issued guidance on conducting a firm-wide risk assessment for sanctions. Though not mandatory, it's considered best practice. During visits, they may inquire about this assessment, so it's wise to be prepared to explain if you haven't conducted one.

Additionally, the SRA has provided guidance on verifying counterparties. Given the strict liability nature of breaching sanctions, relying solely on others for designated person checks might leave you vulnerable. Hence, they recommend conducting basic checks on counterparties, such as verifying them against the consolidated list.

The Legal Sector Affinity Group (LSAG) guidance recommends that you use a number of sources to help you consider whether a country is high risk such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

Transparency International is a global movement working in over 100 countries to try and stop corruption. The CPI ranks 180 countries around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Transparency International recently released its 2023 CPI, revealing some concerning shifts for the UK.

Unfortunately, the UK has experienced a notable drop in its score, marking its lowest ever recorded. This decline, another 2 points from the previous year, is the second consecutive year of such a trend. From a ranking of 11 in 2021 with a score of 77, the UK now sits at 20th place, with a score of 71.

The reason behind this dip is largely attributed to ongoing scandals within public offices, a matter that many in the UK are already aware of. It's worth considering whether your current policies and procedures need adjustments to address any emerging challenges. Additionally, when utilising data from Legl, it's wise to reassess your risk assessment strategies in light of the evolving landscape highlighted by Transparency International's findings.

We have released our new monitoring dashboard, consolidating all risk monitoring across the client lifecycle. Providing one platform and one place to monitor and manage risk actions, our monitoring toolkit now includes:

• Visibility of all active monitoring alerts across client base
• Audit trail of historical alerts and who reviewed them 
• Alert escalation when significant risk identified
• Remediation of compliance gaps through bulk upload contacts
  

We have created a helpful walkthrough for you to view here.

Save time with bulk actions and utilise Legl as your single source of truth for client monitoring.

 We have extended our client bulk upload capabilities to include businesses. The process includes a Sanctions Screening of all businesses, who are then enrolled to ongoing monitoring. This is a quick and easy way to remediate compliance gaps, or migrate clients over from other systems.
To learn more about the process read our help guide here. 

We are excited to announce Adyen as our new payment service provider. Partnering with Adyen, we will be releasing several significant enhancements for you including:

• Same-day payout 
• Better client experience 
• Stronger compliance management 

For more details, please refer to our Adyen FAQs. If you have any further questions or need assistance with the registration process, our Legl Support Team is on hand or please feel free to reach out to be directly.