The Money Laundering Regulations 1993

UK Statutory Instrument 1993 No. 1933 — creates 4 criminal offences.

4offences created

0recorded in force

4revoked

Made: 28 July 1993
In force from: 1 April 1994
Extent: Not stated
Subject: Corporate, financial services, company law, employment, charity, electoral and tax
Made under: European Communities Act 1972

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations give effect to articles 3, 4, 10 and 11 of the Council Directive No. 91/308/EEC on prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering (OJ No. L166, 28.6.91, p. 77). In so far as other new legislative provision was needed to implement the other provisions of the Directive, this provision is contained in the Criminal Justice Act 1993 (c. 36). The Regulations come into force on 1 April 1994. Various words and expression used in the Regulations are defined in regulations 2, 3 and 4. Where business relationships (regulation 3) are formed, or one-off transactions are carried out, in the course of “relevant financial business” (regulation 4) the persons carrying out that business are required to maintain certain procedures for the purposes of forestalling or preventing money laundering (these include the procedures set out in regulations 7, 9, 12 and 14). They are also required to train their employees in those procedures and, more generally, in the recognition of money laundering transactions and the law relating to money laundering. A person who fails to maintain the procedures and carry out the training is guilty of an offence (regulation 5). Where an offence is committed by a body corporate, partnership or unincorporated association, directors and managers of those bodies and certain other specified persons are guilty of the offence (regulation 6). Except where an exemption is provided under regulation 10, satisfactory evidence of the identity of an applicant for business must be obtained in the circumstances described in regulation 7. Payment from (broadly speaking) a bank or building society account may be acceptable evidence of a person’s identity where it is reasonable for the payment to be made by post (regulation 8). Where the applicant for business is, or may be, acting on behalf of another person, reasonable measures must be taken to obtain evidence of the identity of that other person (regulation 9). Provision as to when evidence is satisfactory for the purposes of the Regulations and as to how quickly it must be obtained is contained in regulation 11. Records of all identification evidence that has been obtained and of all transactions with applicants for business that have been carried out must be kept for the period of five years (regulations 12 and 13). Within each relevant financial business, a person must be identified as the person to whom a report is to be made of any information that gives rise to a knowledge or suspicion that money laundering is taking place. That person must consider the reports and, if he also forms the view that money laundering may be taking place, he is required to make a report to a constable (regulation 14). Where supervisory authorities (regulation 15) obtain information indicative of money laundering, they are required to make a report to a constable (regulation 16). Inspectors and certain other persons who work with supervisory authorities under various statutory provisions are required to report any such information to the relevant supervisory authority or to a constable.

Offences created by this instrument

Record-keeping procedures; supplementary provisions regulation 13(5) · Revoked · Strict liability
Interpretation regulation 2(3) · Revoked · Strict liability
Interpretation regulation 2(4) · Revoked · Strict liability
Systems and training to prevent money laundering regulation 5(2) · Revoked · Strict liability

What Parliament said about it

Contributions, debates and written statements mentioning this instrument by name. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

Proceeds Of Crime Bill Lords · Lords Chamber · 25 June 2002 · Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, it is late but in view of what was said on in Committee, we should recognise that this is an important issue. I shall discuss it for slightly longer than one would expect at this time of night. It is anticipated that the order-making power will be used to keep the scope of the legislation in line with future extensions of the regulations, which may bring in other sectors that are not presently regulated. I note that the noble Lord's main concerns, which are similar to those of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, are mainly due to the fact that the intention is…
Proceeds Of Crime Bill Lords · Lords Chamber · 11 July 2002 · Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, that draft involves blameworthy conduct in the sense of negligence before a crime is committed, whereas the draft proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, which the noble Lord supports, involves conviction for an offence without any blameworthy conduct. We all agree that our goal is high standards for reporting coupled with appropriate penalties for wrong-doing. We cannot possibly support what would in effect be strict liability for professionals who were completely blameless. From what the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, said, I detect that he does not support that conclusion…
Proceeds Of Crime Bill Lords · Lords Chamber · 11 July 2002 · Lord Falconer of Thoroton
My Lords, we are still not minded to accept the noble Lord's amendment or the recommendations of the Select Committee on Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform in this respect. As the noble Lord said, we intend to implement the Second European Money Laundering Directive by a revision of the Money Laundering Regulations 1993, which will include an extension of the regulations to cover the areas of business specified in the directive. Changes to the regulations will be subject to a full three-month period of consultation. On Report, I said that the regulations—and hence the criminal law—would…
Government of Wales Bill Commons · Commons Chamber · 23 January 2006 · The Chairman of Ways and Means (Sir Alan Haselhurst)
With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: New schedule 1— 'RESERVED MATTERS— PART 1 GENERAL RESERVATIONS The Constitution 1 The following aspects of the constitution are reserved matters, that is— (a) the Crown, including succession to the Crown and a regency, (b) the Parliament of the United Kingdom, (c) the continued existence of the High Court of Justiciary as a criminal court of first instance and of appeal, (d) the continued existence of the Court of Session as a civil court of first instance and of appeal. 2 (1) Paragraph 1 does not reserve— (a) Her Majesty's…

How Parliament handled it

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