Lack of City of London oversight hurting efforts to halt dirty money, FCA warns

Bodies responsible for monitoring accounting and legal sectors not doing enough to stop money laundering, watchdog says

A lack of proper oversight across the City of London's network of lawyers, bookkeepers and accountants is hampering efforts to crack down on dirty money being funnelled through the UK, the City watchdog has warned.

The latest report by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) flagged concerns over the work of the UK's 25 professional bodies - which oversee the accounting and legal sectors - and found that some were spending as little as 73 a year on anti-money laundering supervision or were outsourcing it entirely to third parties.