In Quarter 1 2024, a sample of designated persons for anti-money laundering (AML) purposes was selected by CPA Ireland's QA team, for an AML review in order to assess their compliance with the relevant legislation, which included but was not limited to the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, as amended.
Per Bye Law 15, a designated person is;
“The Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland (the Institute) is a competent authority under S.60 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 as amended, (the Act) and is responsible for the supervision of its members and Firms who are considered to be designated persons under the Act.
A member or firm is considered to be a designated person only in respect of those activities or services that render the person a designated person. Typically for the purposes of a member of the Institute such services include audit, external accountancy, tax adviser, trust or company services.”
The review specifically focused on a sampling of those designated persons within non-audit CPA firms.
A summary of the overall statistics from the review process is as follows;
| |
Percentage |
Firms who engaged in the process
|
94% |
| Of those; |
|
| Firms with a compliant grade |
18% |
Firms with a generally compliant grade
|
35% |
Firms with non-compliant grade
|
47% |
Those firms that received a non-compliant grade will be subject to re-review in Q2 2024. A CPD webinar is to be held on 29th April 2024 titled,
“Preparing for your QA review/Common Weakness” and will include a summary of the key themes from this thematic review. For further information regarding AML, please consult CPA Ireland’s
AML technical resource. This acts as a central point bringing together all guidance in a single location, to assist firms. It is a live resource which is regularly updated as new guidance is published.