01 November 2023
Supervisor's Annual Report - Anti-Money Laundering October 2023
The Law Society of Northern Ireland (‘the Society’) is the statutory regulator and professional body for the solicitors’ profession in Northern Ireland. The Society is responsible for regulating professional standards and the propriety of solicitors’ professional conduct in general, in order to maintain the independence, ethical standards, professional competence and quality of services offered to the public.
The Society’s overriding principle in exercising its regulatory function is to regulate in the public interest, with the aim of protecting the public.
The Society is a professional body supervisor and sole designated supervisory authority under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (Amended) (‘the MLRs’) for the solicitors’ profession in Northern Ireland.
The Society also exercises other co-regulatory functions, with a remit across a total of approximately 450 solicitors’ firms in Northern Ireland.
This is the Society’s third published annual report as part of its responsibilities as an AML/CTF professional body supervisor and its duty to report information to HM Treasury and the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) under regulation 46A of the MLRs. For this purpose, the Society is reporting on the period 6 April 2022 to 5 April 2023 (‘the reporting period’).