AML HQ - News & Blogs

Addressing AML Skeletons: A route back to compliance

lorraine.kennedy@uboservice.com (Lorraine Kennedy) — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 20:02:02 GMT

When speaking with practice owners, there is a clear theme that Accountants and Bookkeepers are struggling to balance client workload and compliance obligations. A perfect storm of rising costs, increasing regulatory requirements and resource shortages is resulting in a difficult situation with a less-than-ideal outcome.

The reality is that payroll, VAT, income tax, bookkeeping, accounts preparation and other time-critical client tasks often take priority. Practices fall behind on AML compliance tasks such as refreshing Client IDs, Client Risk Reviews and Ongoing Monitoring obligations.

It can feel like an overwhelming task to get back on track; however, there is a conscious awareness that the business is not fully compliant and fearful pangs of an impending AML inspection doesn’t help matters.

In this article, we help you identity a route back to compliance. In three steps we will help you identify compliance gaps, consider the different approaches to get back on track and help you focus on your next actions.

Simplifying AML Compliance: Introducing Intelligent Risk Assessments

lorraine.kennedy@uboservice.com (Lorraine Kennedy) — Thu, 09 May 2024 08:30:56 GMT

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations pose a persistent challenge for Irish accountants. Yet, amidst this regulatory burden, our mission at AML HQ is clear: to alleviate the complexities of compliance with our simplified AML solution.

In our last blog, we discussed the essentials of AML risk assessments and delved into both business and client risk assessments. We covered the assessment structure and the required risk categories and hopefully provided a good introduction to help understand your obligations.

At AML HQ, we have always provided clients with online risk assessment templates. Although straightforward, many of our clients still find it a challenging and time consuming task. It is for this reason that we started to create intelligent risk assessments, as a smarter and more efficient approach to conducting risk assessments.

Let's further consider the problem. When an Accountant sits down to complete their annual business risk assessment, their starting point is typically a 'copy and paste' of last year's assessment, or a blank template. It can be difficult to know what level of detail is required; what risks to highlight, and how to satisfy external scrutiny.

With our new concept of intelligent risk assessments, our approach is to provide supportive suggestions throughout the risk assessment process. We provide suggestive text and draft risk summaries based on real-time data from within your AML client database.

In April, we released the intelligent Business Risk Assessment and we are now moving on to the Client Risk Assessments.

Navigating AML Risk Assessments: A Guide for Irish Accountants

lorraine.kennedy@uboservice.com (Lorraine Kennedy) — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 07:56:53 GMT

In this short guide, we’ll cover the essentials of AML risk assessments and provide practical guidance on how to be ready for your next AML monitoring visit.

AML Inspections for Accountants: What to Expect

lorraine.kennedy@uboservice.com (Lorraine Kennedy) — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 09:54:32 GMT

Our clients often express concern and distress when they receive the dreaded Quality Assurance Review or Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Monitoring Visit letter. We have already supported a number of clients this year through review processes. In this article we will attempt to demystify the AML inspection process so that you know what to prepare for and hopefully reduce some of the anxiety.

AML Compliance in 60 seconds

lorraine.kennedy@uboservice.com (Lorraine Kennedy) — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 13:35:01 GMT

The start of the year is always a good time to review AML processes and address any compliance gaps. Accountants are often proactive in this regard and want to improve efficiency, reduce manual tasks, and achieve peace of mind for their next AML inspection.

At the same time, professional accounting bodies are conducting more AML assessments. In December and January, we received a flood of inquiries from clients with notifications of AML inspections and AML thematic reviews.

In response to these requests, we have created this 60-second guide to AML Compliance.

Accounting New Year's Resolutions

Ben Cronin — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 11:52:00 GMT

A new year, a new you as the saying goes. As January comes to a close and the talk of new year’s resolutions starts to subside, we review how well we’ve faired in meeting our goals. I think many of us choose similar resolutions such as dry January, going to the gym, or eating healthy, often ending with mixed results. This year I thought it would be more interesting to focus on business resolutions for Accountants. Using the 5 resolutions listed here, I have added my own commentary based on conversations with our customers. With self-improvement (and work improvement!) in mind, here are 5 New Year’s resolutions accountants could achieve this year.

AML HQ joins the ACCA technology supplier platform.

cathal.ryan@uboservice.com (Cathal Ryan) — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:38:29 GMT

AML HQ, the innovative Anti Money Laundering (AML) solution provider, announced they will be featuring on the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) technology supplier platform, providing Know Your Customer (KYC) onboarding software and compliance workflows suitable for Accountants.

UBO Service Introduces AML HQ, Empowering Legal and Accountancy Professionals to Onboard Clients Faster

lorraine.kennedy@uboservice.com (Lorraine Kennedy) — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 16:51:04 GMT

AML Obligations for Accountants in Ireland

lorraine.kennedy@uboservice.com (Lorraine Kennedy) — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 15:45:15 GMT

Accountants, along with financial institutions and other professionals are arguably the first line of defence for the financial system, acting as gatekeepers in the prevention of money laundering and the countering of terrorist financing. Within this post, we break down the key obligations for Accountants in Ireland that stem from the comprehensive Irish anti-money laundering regime.

AML Obligations for Solicitors and Legal Professionals in Ireland

cathal.ryan@uboservice.com (Cathal Ryan) — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 15:45:05 GMT

Solicitors, along with financial institutions and other professionals are arguably the first line of defence for the financial system, acting as gatekeepers in the prevention of money laundering and countering of terrorist financing. In this post, we break down the key obligations forSolicitorsin Ireland that stem from the comprehensive Irish anti-money laundering regime.