Anti-money Laundering Registration

As of 15 December 2007 the Money Laundering Regulations (the Regulations) came into force across the UK. The purpose of the regulations is to detect, deter and disrupt financial crime and terrorist financing by reducing the possibility of legitimate businesses being used for money laundering. This page contains the link to OFT's anti-money laundering registration form and guidance on completion of the form.

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How do I register?

1. Download a copy of the guidance to completing the registration form (pdf 140kb). Please refer to this guidance as you complete the registration form, particularly for questions marked with a *, which are mandatory fields.

2. You will now need to download the registration form using the link below. Please read the following first:

Each time a form is opened a unique reference number is generated, this is your application reference number. It is important that each business has its own unique reference number so please do not print or photocopy the same form numerous times for completion by different businesses as this could result in more than one application being submitted with the same reference number.

Please note that you must have Adobe Acrobat installed and JavaScript enabled to view the form.

Open a copy of the form (pdf 194kb) and complete all the relevant boxes on the registration form on your computer.

3. Print and sign the completed form.

4. Enclose a payment made out to Office of Fair Trading with your unique reference number written on the back. The fee for registration in 2009/10 is £115 per premises. The fee is capped at 20 premises. Refer to the fees section in the guidance for information on how to calculate fees.

5. Please save or print an extra copy of your completed form for your records and make a note of your reference number; you will need to quote this number if you contact us about your registration.

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Where to send my form  

If your business has more than 30 premises, please contact us on 020 7211 8200 first for details of how to register a large number of premises.

Please post all completed and signed registration forms with a cheque/postal order for the appropriate fee to:

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Team
Office of Fair Trading
PO BOX 65813
London
EC4P 4FS  

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What happens next?

1. We may contact you to ask you for more information

2. We will contact you within 45 days of receipt either to confirm your registration or inform you that the OFT is minded not to register you. (It may take longer than 45 days for the OFT to notify you of this if the OFT has not received all the information required on the application form to complete the application process.)

We suggest that businesses apply for registration no later than the end of November 2009 to avoid being caught in the predicted peak of registration applications which is preceded by the Christmas period.

Businesses have to be registered by 31 January 2010.

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Do I need to register with the OFT?

The OFT requires all its supervised businesses to register before the 31 January 2010. The following types of business are supervised by the OFT and will need to register:

• Estate agents - those engaged in estate agency work as defined by Section 1 of the Estate Agents Act 1979.
  
  
• Consumer Credit Financial Institutions (CCFIs) - businesses carrying on consumer credit lending activity who are neither authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) nor money service businesses supervised by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).  Those businesses which only provide credit by introducing the borrower to a third party financial institution (ie credit brokerage) will not need to register.

Failure to register could lead to the OFT imposing a civil penalty or taking a prosecution if business is carried on after 31 January 2010. Prosecution could result in a sentence of up to two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.

Please note that the Money Laundering Regulations and the registration process is separate from other roles performed by the OFT, such as consumer credit licensing.

If you are unsure of whether your business needs to register, or would like to confirm if the OFT is your supervisor, please see the AML supervision FAQs page.

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Further information

 For further information please see Money Laundering Regulations 2007 which contains more information on the Regulations and the OFT's supervisory role and the full Registration Policy (pdf 112 kb).

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Contact the Anti-money laundering team

If you experience any problems downloading the registration form please email AMLD3@oft.gsi.gov.uk providing your full name, address and telephone contact details or alternatively contact the OFT AML Helpline on 020 7211 8200 between 9am and 5pm Monday-Friday.

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Anti-Money Laundering: OFT's future supervisory approach

The OFT is conducting a consultation on aspects of its future approach to supervising estate agents and certain credit lenders under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007. The closing date is 7 May 2010.

Download Anti-Money Laundering: Future supervisory approach consultation (pdf 315kb).

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Anti-money laundering regime ends financial year with surplus income

The Office of Fair Trading (‘OFT’) is the supervisor under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 for estate agents and certain consumer credit lenders. Businesses carrying out activities supervised by the OFT were required to be registered with the OFT for anti-money laundering purposes by 31 January 2010.

The OFT’s anti-money laundering regime is required to be self-funding, with the full reasonable costs of operating the regime met by the fees paid by businesses applying to be registered. The fee due at registration was set at £115 per business premise (capped at 20 premises). It was forecast at the start of the year that the regime would cost £1.49m to operate in the year.

The OFT’s costs in 2009/10 have been less than estimated. In addition to this, while the number of businesses registering during 2009/10 has been in line with initial forecasts, the total income received from those businesses has exceeded expectations, due to a higher than expected number of premises per business.

As a result, the OFT’s anti-money laundering regime will end the year with an expected surplus of approximately £615,000. In order to ensure that this saving is passed on to the supervised population, all firms who have registered with the OFT for anti-money laundering purposes in 2009/10 will be granted a discount – equivalent to their share of the surplus – on their first annual fee, which will be payable in autumn 2010. While further details of this discount (and the annual fee payable) will be sent to all affected businesses in due course, it is expected that the discount will be approximately £40 per business premise, capped at 20 premises.

For businesses who should have registered in 2009/10 but failed to do so, the fee payable at registration will remain at £115 per business premise (capped at 20 premises). Any businesses registering between 1 April 2010 and the 2010/11 annual fee collection period will also receive the discount on their annual fee for 2010/11.

Where a business is not required to pay an annual fee in autumn 2010, for example because they have ceased trading or no longer carry out supervised activity, a refund equivalent to the discount amount will be offered. This will be done in autumn 2010 and affected businesses should follow the instructions which will be issued with the request for the annual fee payment, and should contact the OFT to request the refund.

The OFT will contact those businesses who have withdrawn their applications for registration, in order to pay any refunds now due.

For further information please contact the AML Helpline on 020 7211 8200 or amld3@oft.gsi.gov.uk.

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