The Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 and 2013 place increased responsibilities on accountants for customer due diligence, scrutiny and reporting as an anti-money-laundering compliance measure aiming to prevent and detect money laundering and terrorist financing activities. A breach of the legislation by an accountant can, on conviction, result in a fine, imprisonment or both.

Monitoring compliance with anti-money-laundering (AML) legislation has formed part of the various institute’s quality assurance regimes for some time. However, this area is set to receive increased attention because of a recent National Risk Assessment, published by the Department of Justice and Equality, which judged the sectoral risk for accountancy service providers in Ireland to be medium-high.

In response, the regulatory bodies are being required to complete detailed annual anti-money-laundering returns and are placing increased emphasis on their AML supervisory regimes.