Introduction
This manual outlines the policies, procedures, and internal controls designed to protect BRISK TRANSFAIR LTD, a company registered under Companies House Number 12981010, from Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing risks.
This document sets out the compliance policies and procedures applied for Brisk Transfair Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under Companies House Number 12981010, incorporated on 28th October 2020, hereinafter referred to as the Company in its efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Company plans to offer money remittance services to individuals and businesses based in the UK upon approval from FCA and HMRC. The Company intends to offer the services through digital channels.
The Company is owned by the Mr. Ehsan Jahan, a British national. To support the business setup as well as to manage the AML Checks and Controls, the Company has also appointed Mr. Nadim-Ul Hassan Sheikh as the Nominated Officer.
Both the Directors of Brisk Transfair Limited combine between each other a strong financial background and a media background. Mr. Nadim-Ul Hassan Sheikh has a distinguished portfolio in the banking sector as well as he’s is a chartered accountant and MLR officer. Mr Ehsan Jahan, comes with an extensive experience in the Media and Broadcast industry. After working for the BBC for several years, he started his independent production companies known as Cesara Studios and Filmkit Solution - specializing in offering broadcast facility and satellite links for live programs. Mr. Ehsan has also established various other businesses successfully related to pharmaceutical and real estate sector.
The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 set out what relevant businesses such as Money Service Businesses must do to prevent the use of their services for money laundering or terrorist financing purposes. It includes due diligence, record-keeping, training, fitness and propriety of directors and NOMINATED OFFICERs as well as penalties for non-compliance.
The Proceeds of Crime Act sets out the primary offences related to money laundering as follows:
Concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property from the UK
Entering into or becoming involved in an arrangement which facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by or on behalf of another person
The acquisition, use and/or possession of criminal property
The primary money laundering offences apply to everyone. The Proceeds of Crime Act also creates offences of failing to make a report about suspicious activity, and tipping off any person that you have made, or intend to make, such a report. This applies to businesses in the regulated sector which includes the Money Service Businesses.
The Terrorism Act sets out the primary offences related to terrorist funding. Regulated businesses like Money Service Businesses must report a belief of suspicion of offences related to terrorist financing.
The Transfer of Funds Regulations and the associated European Union Regulation on the transfer of funds set out what information money transmission businesses must send when they initiate transactions.
The Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) is made up of the leading UK Trade Associations in the Financial Services Industry. Its aim is to promulgate good practice in countering money laundering and to give practical assistance in interpreting the UK Money Laundering Regulations. This is primarily achieved by the publication of industry guidance.
The data protection legislation, i.e. the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governs the processing of information relating to individuals, including obtaining, holding, use or disclosure of information.
Personal data obtained by a business under the Regulations may only be processed for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing unless use of the data is allowed by other legislation or after obtaining the consent of the data subject.
You must provide new customers with a statement that personal data will only be used for the purposes of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing and provide them with the information as required under Article 13 of the GDPR. The information you must provide includes:
the identity and the contact details of the controller and the controller’s representative if they have one
the contact details of the data protection officer, if you have one
the reason you’re processing the personal data, including the legal basis
who will receive the personal data
whether you intend to transfer the personal data outside of the UK, and if so, whether they have an EU data adequacy agreement, or appropriate safeguards
how long you will store the personal data
the existence of a right to request access to and deletion of personal data, including data portability
the right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office
whether providing the personal data is a statutory or contractual obligation and the possible consequence of failing to provide it
the existence of any automated decision making, including profiling.
The processing of personal data in accordance with these Regulations is lawful and necessary for the prevention of money laundering or terrorist financing and is for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.
The Company’s AML Policy is designed to ensure that it complies with the requirements and obligations set out in UK legislation, regulations, rules and industry guidance for the financial services sector, including the need to have adequate systems and controls in place to mitigate the risk of the Company being used to facilitate money laundering or financial crime. The AML Policy sets out the minimum standards which must be complied with by all employees of the Company and includes:
• The appointment of Money Laundering Reporting Officer (NOMINATED OFFICER) or the Nominated Officer, of sufficient seniority, who has responsibility for oversight of the business’ compliance with relevant legislation, regulations, rules and industry guidance
• Establishing and maintaining a Risk Based Approach (RBA) towards assessing and managing the money laundering and terrorist financing risks to the Company
• Establishing and maintaining risk-based customer due diligence, identification, verification and know your customer (KYC) procedures, including enhanced due diligence for those customers presenting higher risk, such as politically exposed persons (PEPs), customers belonging to high risk countries.
• Establishing and maintaining risk based parameters and procedures to monitor ongoing customer activity
• Procedures for reporting suspicious activity internally and to the relevant law enforcement authorities as appropriate
• The maintenance of appropriate records for the minimum prescribed periods
• Training and awareness for all relevant employees; and
• The provision of appropriate management information and reporting to senior management of the Company’s compliance with the requirements
Money laundering is the process by which criminals attempt to hide and disguise the true origin and ownership of the proceeds of their criminal activities (e.g. illegal drugs dealing, tax evasion) thereby avoiding prosecution, conviction and confiscation of the criminal funds. The aim of this process is to convert such criminal proceeds into “clean” money. The risks to the financial services sector primarily involve being used to facilitate this process, whether knowingly or unwittingly.
There are many ways of laundering money and these are deemed to be accomplished in three distinct stages:
Placement– this is the first stage in the money laundering operation and involves the physical disposal of the initial proceeds derived from illegal activity, e.g. placing cash in the conventional financial system.
Layering– this second stage involves separating the illicit proceeds from their source by creating complex layers of financial transactions designed to disguise the audit trail and provide anonymity.
Integration– the final stage involves providing an apparent legitimacy to the criminally derived wealth. If the layering process has succeeded, integration schemes place the laundered proceeds back into the economy in such a way that they re-enter the financial system appearing as normal business funds.
These three steps may occur as separate and distinct phases and occur simultaneously or, more commonly, they may overlap. Generic examples of laundering money can range from the purchase and re-sale of vehicles to passing money through a complex international web of legitimate and bogus companies.
Often the proceeds take the form of cash, however criminals recognise cash payments into the financial sector often give rise to additional enquiries and therefore seek to convert illegally earned cash or to mix it with legitimate cash before it enters the financial system.
The FCA’s “prevention of financial crime” objective encompasses the prevention of financial fraud.
The procedures that financial sector firms adopt to combat money laundering should also serve to reduce the incidence of financial crime including fraud, dishonesty and corruption.
This AML manual must be read and adhered to by all the appointed individuals of the Company.
Our key policy is to have strong and practical anti-money laundering policies and procedures with fraud prevention measures.
In identifying the money laundering risk and establishing the extent and nature of systems and controls, we consider a range of risk factors which include:
Clients categorisation and their remittance activity profiles
Client ID verification
The amount of remittance and how it was derived by the remitter
The remitter’s country of origin
The number of transactions the remitter sends over a period of time
The type of commercial activities in case of corporate clients.
Risk is increased if the money launderer can hide behind corporate structures such as limited companies, offshore trusts and nominee arrangements.
As mentioned above, the geographical location affects the money laundering risk analysis, some examples of this is when the remittance is to a country which:
Has inadequate anti-money laundering strategies
Has material deficiencies in their anti-money laundering strategies
Is a politically unstable regime with high levels of public or private sector corruption
Is known for drug producing or drug transit activities
Further information on countries or territories identified as higher risk is available from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at http://www.fatf-gafi.org.
In compliance with the FCA’s rules the Company has:
Appointed a Money Laundering Reporting Officer/Nominated Officer
Systems to verify the identification of potential Remitters, stakeholders and persons of influence. The Company has acquired the services of RemitOne Limited to provide the relevant modules related to AML and Compliance as part of the overall Money Transfer System (MTS).
Process where any knowledge or suspicions of money laundering will be reported
Training for all appointed individuals on AML
System to monitor controls
A process to retain adequate records
The Nominated Officer is allocated overall responsibility for managing the Compliance and AML policies for the Company. The Nominated Officer understands that he is responsible and completely liable for AML violations of the Company and subject to penalty and imprisonment.
Ensure that the Company takes steps to obtain and review any relevant “Know Your Client” (KYC) or “Know Your Business” (KYB) information prior to processing remittance.
File Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) with regulatory bodies such as the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Adhere to the process for financial sanction requirements
Make reasonable steps to establish and maintain adequate arrangements for awareness and training of staff, and implementing disciplinary measures if staff do not comply with the requirements
Put together annual reports based on Risk assessments which can be used by the company to assess its position and associated risks.
Maintain a record of company AML audits
Ensure the systems and processes are regularly updated in line with the changes in the Money Laundering Regulations.
Both the Directors totally understand the importance of having adequate checks and controls in the Company to prevent it from money laundering activities. The Nominated Officer will periodically update the Director of changes in the regulations and its impact/risk assessment on systems and associated processes within the Company.
Company applies measures based on risk assessment matrix, identifying situations which can present a (higher than usual) risk of money laundering or terrorist financing.
As part of this, under company’s risk-based approach, if the standard method for evidence of customer identity is insufficient, it can obtain additional information about the relevant customer. The customer here represents the remitters who would be utilizing the Company’s systems to avail money transfer service.
The extent of additional information needed i.e. the need for extra identification and of any monitoring carried out in respect of any client or class/category of client, will depend on the money laundering or terrorist financing risk that the client, or class/category of client, is assessed to present to Company.
Reasonable steps must be taken to check the customer’s identity to show that they are who they claim to be and if applicable that they are trading for a legitimate business purpose.
All new clients must provide sufficient information for verifying their identity before any transactions are undertaken.
Formal identification will be completed using the first time registration process available on the Company’s website or mobile app. One of the following list of identification documents is mandatory for customers before they can send funds to their beneficiaries.
Current signed passport / EEA State ID Card
EU National: UK Residence permit
Current UK / EEA photo card driving license (full or provisional)
National ID card (BRP)
The information collected for KYC purpose is specified under Table 1 of this document.
Individuals who have, or have had, a high political profile, or hold, or have held, public office, can pose a higher money laundering risk to the Company as their position may make them vulnerable to corruption.
This risk also extends to members of their immediate families and to their close associates. PEP status itself does not, of course, incriminate individuals or entities.
It does, however, put the client, or the ultimate beneficial owner, into a higher risk category.
A PEP is defined as “an individual who is or has, at any time in the preceding year, been entrusted with prominent public functions and an immediate family member, or a known close associate, of such a person”.
It does, however, put the remitter, or the beneficial owner, into a higher risk category.
On a risk-based approach the Company has to:
Identify using the PEP screening process
Collect additional information based on the type and value of the transaction
Obtain appropriate senior management approval prior to any remittance being carried out by a PEP
Establish and record the source of the funds which are being used for the remittance
Implement routine PEP checks of existing remitters that may fall into this category later
Maintain a PEP register for remitters who fall into this category
The Company reviews all customers at the point of registration and prior to the processing of each transaction against the following sanction lists:
OFAC SDN
HM Treasury
UN Sanctions
Consolidated list of persons, groups and entities subject to EU financial Sanctions
The Company would be making use of the features available within the systems available for Sanctions List and PEP Screening.
Criminal law imposes a mandatory obligation on all management and staff within the regulated financial sector to report as soon as is practicable, where they have knowledge or suspicion of money laundering or where there are reasonable grounds to know or suspect that this is the case, and the information is gained within the course of their regulated business activities.
The Proceeds of Crime Act (2002) requires that persons within the financial sector must report their knowledge or suspicion to the Directors of the Company.
The potential consequences for the Company, its management, its employees and its clients are of a very serious nature, involving fines, imprisonment or both. Please note the following breaches:
It is an offence for any person to aid a money launderer to obtain, conceal, retain, or invest funds if that person knows or suspects that the funds are the proceeds of serious criminal conduct (‘criminal conduct’ includes any conduct wherever it takes place, which would constitute an indictable offence if committed in the UK – i.e. an offence serious enough to be tried in a Crown Court). This includes drug trafficking, terrorism, major thefts, fraud, robbery, forgery, counterfeiting, blackmail, modern slavery, extortion and fiscal offences.
It is an offence for anyone to prejudice an investigation by informing the subject of a suspicion, or any third party, that a disclosure has been made or that the authorities are acting or proposing to act or investigate.
A tipping off offence cannot arise unless the person concerned knows or suspects that a suspicious transaction report has been made either internally, or to the National Crime Agency (NCA) or alternatively knows or suspects that the Police or HM Revenue and Customs are carrying out, or intending to carry out a money laundering investigation.
It is an offence for any person who acquired knowledge or suspicion of money laundering during their employment not to report the knowledge or suspicion as soon as practicable.
The Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 strengthens the test of disclosure in respect of terrorist funding from subjective to objective by making it an offence not to make such a report wherever information received during business in the regulated sector provides “reasonable grounds” to suspect terrorist funding.
It should be noted that the requirement to report also covers situations when the business or transaction has been turned away, or has not been proceeded with, because the circumstances were suspicious.
This offence is committed where a person, who knows that any “property” is, or in whole or in part directly or indirectly represents another person’s proceeds of criminal activity, acquires or uses that property or has possession of it.
This offence will be committed where a person disguises or conceals any “property” which, in whole or in part directly or indirectly represents proceeds of his own criminal activity or converts or transfers that property or removes it from the jurisdiction for avoiding prosecution or the making or enforcement of a confiscation order.
In addition, this offence will be committed where a person knows, or has reasonable grounds to suspect, that any property, in whole or in part directly or indirectly, represents another person’s proceeds of criminal activity and conceals or disguises it or converts or transfers it and removes it from the jurisdiction for assisting any person to avoid prosecution or making or enforcement of a confiscation order.
Non-compliance has zero tolerance by the Company and can lead to substantial fines and imprisonment. The Company takes extra measures to avoid reputational damage due to any non-compliance act by the employees.
The proceeds of crime act (2002) introduced criminal liability on firms for failing to gather enough information prior to a transaction.
Firms need to demonstrate that they have AML/CTF knowledge and took all reasonable steps in a circumstance to know the client and the rationale for the transaction or instruction.
All employees need to report to the Nominated Officer for any suspicious or unusual pattern of transactions.
If there is any doubt whether something is suspicious or not, then it should be discussed with the Nominated Officer.
The Nominated Officer will, where appropriate, report the relevant cases to National Crime Agency (NCA) or other law enforcement bodies. This information should be kept strictly confidential and not disclosed to anyone else (whether another member of staff or otherwise).
Businesses in the regulated sectors and their employees are required to disclose information to the NCA in circumstances where they:
Suspect or have reasonable grounds for knowing or suspecting that another person is engaged in money laundering or terrorist financing
MLR 2017 requires that businesses regulated sectors must have policies and procedures under which:
An individual in the organization is appointed as a Nominated Officer who is responsible for receiving disclosures of information concerning suspicions of money laundering, made under the requirements of Part 7 of the Proceeds of the Crime Act and Part 3 of the Terrorism Act.
Employees report suspicious activity to the Nominated Officer, and
Nominated Officer considers disclosures in the light of any relevant information which is available to the business and determines whether it gives rise to knowledge or suspicion or reasonable grounds for knowledge or suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing.
Suspicion is an opinion held that is based on information or circumstances but without certainty or proof. Unusual transactions are not necessarily suspicious, however, MLR 2017 requires that unusual transactions and any other activity that is regarded as particularly likely by its nature to be related to money laundering or terrorist financing must be identified and scrutinized, which could result in suspicion requiring disclosure.
Disclosures are made by submitting a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR).
The preferred means of making reports to the NCA is electronically through the SARS online system at www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk. Where this route is not practicable, reports can be sent securely through other channels to the specified contacts at NCA. The reports will be prepared and filed by the NOMINATED OFFICER.
The SARs should contain as much relevant information about the customer, transaction or activity as possible.
The Nominated Officer must report suspicious approaches or proposed transactions or activity, even if no transaction or activity takes place.
Examples of a Suspicious Behavior:
Customer owns or operates a cash-based business
The size and frequency of the transaction is different from the customer’s usual pattern of transactions in the past.
The money transfer is to a high-risk country
The customer is unable to provide satisfactory evidence of the source of the funds
Unusual source of funds are identified
The customer is reluctant to provide details of their identity or provides incomplete or misleading/fake documents.
The customer is trying to use intermediaries to protect their identity
The commercial activity of the business is different than the purpose of money transfer
The Company ensures all its customers identities are verified prior to any transactions being conducted. Where due diligence cannot be completed satisfactorily, the company will:
Terminate the business relationship with the customer
Consider making a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR)
Gather additional information from customers where applicable
Where applicable the following records would be retained in a secure system by Nominated Officer for anti-money laundering purposes:
Identification of clients - full details of evidence of identity for 5 years from the end of the relationship
Transactions –client files containing the full details of the transaction for 5 years from the date the transaction was completed
Internal and external reporting – full details of action taken by Nominated Officer for 5 years from the creation of the record
Information not acted upon – full details of the information considered by the Nominated Officer, but not reported externally (i.e. to NCA) for 5 years from the date the information was obtained
Refer to Table 4 in this document for details.
The Company has acquired the Money Transfer System (MTS) as a hosted platform from RemitOne Limited, a company specialized in money transfer software solutions based in the UK.
The MTS provides various features related to AML and Compliance checks such as Sanction and PEP screening, Rule Based Transaction Monitoring. The MTS has inbuilt feature to detect structuring of transactions by the customers. It also has an in-built module for transaction screening against the watchlists that are periodically auto updated.
Additionally the Company plans to subscribe either with GBG or Experian for third party electronic verification of its customers availing services through online channels. These systems are integrated with MTS. The Company plans to subscribe with a PCI Compliant Payment Gateway Provider to facilitate payments from customers through their debit/credit cards as well as bank transfers.
The Company monitors transactions using the MTS such as:
A single remitter sending multiple transactions often in a short span of time to the same beneficiary or multiple beneficiaries.
Multiple remitters sending transactions to a common beneficiary.
The Company conducts analysis for the purposes of detecting structuring of transactions on a rolling basis over a minimum of 90 days. The controls defined in the MTS are based on the following criteria:
Amount wise – single or cumulative
Count wise – single or cumulative
Nationality
Destination
Collection Modes: Cash Pickup, Credit to Account or Credit to Mobile Wallet
The Money Laundering Regulations MLR2017 require that all firms adopt a Risk-Based Approach (RBA) to manage the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing in their businesses. Risks are classified as: Low, Medium or High. The Company maintains the risk assessment in line with the MLR 2017.
Client Type | % | Risk | Mitigation |
Private Individuals | 50% | M | Enhanced Due Diligence |
Private Companies (SMEs) | 50% | M | Enhanced Due Diligence |
Country | % | Send/Receive | Risk | Mitigation |
United Kingdom | NA | NA | L | NA |
Europe | 40% | S | L | Enhanced Due Diligence |
Asia | 30% | S | M | Enhanced Due Diligence |
Middle East & Africa | 30% | S | H | Enhanced Due Diligence |
Indicator | Risk | Mitigation |
Sender matches sanction list | H | Transaction blocked and to be reviewed by Nominated Officer |
Beneficiary matches sanction list | H | Transaction blocked and to be reviewed by Nominated Officer |
Large value payments | H | Transaction blocked and supporting documentation required by Nominated Officer, report to NCA if found suspicious |
Customer has faced enforcement action from regulatory body | H | Consider terminating relationship. Additional review of transactions by Nominated Officer |
Sender/Beneficiary is PEP | H | Nominated Officer Review and Sign-off Required |
Customer unable to provide supporting documentation when requested. | H | Consider terminating relationship and report to NCA |
Field | Mandatory – M Conditional Mandatory – CM |
Customer Type: Individuals | |
Complete Name as per ID | M |
Date of Birth | M |
Complete Address | M |
Mobile Number | M |
Nationality | M |
Id Type | M |
Id Expiry Date | M |
Source of income | CM |
Purpose of Transfer | M |
Relationship with beneficiary | CM |
Occupation | CM |
Email id | M |
Customer Type: Corporates | |
Company Name | M |
Company Registration Number | M |
Company Business Telephone | M |
Company Business Email Id | M |
Company Representative Name | M |
Type of Business | M |
Ultimate Beneficial Owners | M |
Amount (GBP) | Period (days – rolling) | Required Information | Documents Required | NOMINATED OFFICER Sign-off Required? |
0.01-1,500.00 | 90 | Obtain information as per Table 1. | Obtain id as per Table 3 | No |
1,500.01-5,000.00 | 90 | Obtain information as per Table 1. | Obtain id as per Table 3 | No |
5,000.01-10,000.00 | 90 | Obtain information as per Table 1 | Obtain id as per Table 3 | No |
10,000.01 onwards | 90 | Obtain information as per Table 1 | Obtain id as per Table 3 | Yes |
Where the beneficial owner of the funds is not the customer, the same requirements shall apply to the beneficial owner.
Form A ID documents (Primary) |
|
Form B ID documents (Secondary) |
|
The table below provides details of the records that must be retained and the applicable retention periods to comply with UK AML/CTF legislation.
Type of record | Length of retention |
Account opening and customer due diligence profile including risk assessment, CDD material and supporting identification evidence | At least 5 years after the date when the account is closed |
Individual customer transaction and activity records | At least 5 years from the date that the transaction or series of transaction was completed |
Records relating to reviews of higher risk activity or transactions | At least 5 years after the date when the account is closed |
Compliance monitoring reports and annual reports | At least 5 years from the date when the report was made |
Staff training records | At least 5 years from the date of the training |
Court order, law enforcement enquiries, and responses to such | A minimum of 5 years or indefinitely if required to do so by law enforcement |
Internal and external SARs (suspicious activity reports) | A minimum of 5 years or indefinitely if required to do so by law enforcement |
Payment services for Brisk Pay Ltd are provided by Sciopay Ltd. Sciopay Ltd is a company incorporated in England & Wales. Registration No: 12352935. Sciopay Ltd is licensed and regulated by HMRC as a Money Service Business (MSB). License No: XCML00000151326. Sciopay Ltd is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Authorised Payment Institution. Firm Reference Number: 927951
