The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2023

On December 14, 2023, the new Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2023 were published on legislation.gov.uk, the official UK platform for the publication of legal texts. The regulations modify the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/692), specifically regulation 35 thereunder, to stipulate the treatment of a domestic politically exposed person (PEP) or a family member or known close associate of a domestic PEP for purposes of applying adequate customer due diligence measures to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Specifically, the regulations specify that domestic PEPs and their family members or close associates are deemed to present a lower level of risk than equivalent persons of foreign jurisdictions. Therefore, the due diligence measures to be applied can be less than those applied towards foreign PEPs. However, this only holds true so long as there are no additional risk factors for a domestic PEP.
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The new provisions come into force on January 10, 2024.