Solicitors could now be prosecuted for failing to report information that could undermine the UK’s financial sanctions regime.

New financial sanctions regulations came into force on 8th August expanding the scope of the reporting requirements in the original European Union Financial Sanctions Regulations 2017. The regulations now include ‘independent legal professionals’, accountants, auditors, trust or company service providers, estate agents, dealers in precious metals and stones, and casinos.

These businesses are now covered by the criminal offences associated with a failure to comply with the duty to inform HM Treasury “if they know or have reasonable cause to suspect that a person has committed an offence under the relevant regulations or is a person who is the subject of an asset freeze for the purposes of the relevant EU financial sanctions regime”.

The countries covered by the regulations are;

• Afghanistan
• Belarus
• Burundi
• Central African Republic
• Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Egypt
• Eritrea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Iran
• Iraq
• ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida
• Lebanon and Syria
• Libya
• Republic of Guinea
• Somalia
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tunisia
• Ukraine
• Yemen
• Zimbabwe

Click on the link for details of the regulations;

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/754/contents/made

The ‘Big Four’ accountants are proving “intense competition” for mid-tier law firms and “quietly” taking the more commoditised work away from them, the head of legal services at RBS has said, predicting that the accountants will move on to compete with bigger firms.

However, he also described the mid-tier’s resurgence over recent years as “little short of spectacular”.
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In his annual review of the legal market, James Tsolakis, head of legal services, large corporate and sectors at RBS, said that “liberalisation of the legal market has taken a massive step forward across the board”.

Read the full Legal Futures article here

Accountants will soon be competing directly with solicitor firms ‘on every high street in the country’, according to a leading financial advisor to the legal sector.

Ian Muirhead, chairman of Solicitors Independent Financial Advice, said he expects 750 accountancy firms – three times more than first envisaged – to move into probate work after securing an alternative business structure licence.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales has accredited 113 entities as an ABS since last October, having been accepted as an approved regulator almost a year ago. A further 34 applications are being processed.

Speaking at a Westminster Legal Policy, Muirhead said too many solicitor firms are ‘in denial’ about the threat from the accountancy profession.

‘Success will go to those who can manage businesses and I query whether that’s going to be the solicitors or whether solicitors are going to be the back room boys,’ he said.

Muirhead argued that law firms’ response so far has been focused on consolidation, mergers and acquisitions – but this risks playing into rivals’ hands.

‘[The response is] safety in numbers, more of the same, not thinking outside the legal silo, and therefore missing the opportunity of which many new ABSs are availing themselves, of providing a more diversified and holistic client service,’ he added.

Read the full Law Society Gazette article here