Review of PEP procedures finds "room for improvement"

After complaints from United Kingdom parliamentarians and their close associates that they had been plied for excessive information or denied services by banks, the FCA has conducted a review of how firms have implemented Guidance for a "risk-based and proportionate approach". All firms have work to do, the regulator concluded. By Denis O'Connor.

Denis O'Connoris a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment. He was a member of the British Bankers' Association Money Laundering Committee from 2003-10 and a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group's board and editorial panel between 2010 and 2016. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial crime issues, both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

The Financial Conduct Authority has instructed firms to improve their treatment of those customers who are UK parliamentarians, senior civil servants and members of their families following a review of how firms are treating such customers. [1] The Review followed concerns expressed in the summer of 2023 by Nigel Farage, a former member of the European Parliament, now a member of the House of Commons and a leading Brexiteer who claimed that he had been debanked by Coutts on the basis of his political views.