Accountancy practices are inherently vulnerable to exploitation by criminals eager to avail themselves of advisory and transactional services. The Government’s National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing published in December 2020 found that the risk of money laundering in this area remains high.

Accountancy practices are attractive to criminals as they enable them to mask illicit funds in legitimacy and respectability, benefiting from the professionally qualified status of accountancy practices. Such practices are at risk of being exploited and abused by criminals. In particular, company formation and termination as well as mainstream accounting and payroll have been identified as being most at risk. Criminals will turn to accountancy practices when seeking to set up businesses in order to hide the criminal origins of funds.