Anti-money laundering rules as cheap as chips: Deloitte

Accountancy giant Deloitte has released a web-based anti-money laundering (AML) tool, which it says will allow financial planners to comply with new rules for the price of a hamburger.

The Deloitte’s tool, dubbed ‘AMLcheck’, has been released at a time when Government and industry begin to prepare draft anti-money laundering legislation.

Many in the financial planning and funds management community have expressed fears that any new legislation, which will require them to provide identity checks on their clients, may place unfathomable cost on their businesses.

But the head of Deliotte’s anti-money laundering unit, Tim Phillips, said businesses effected by the legislation, intended to stem the funding of terrorism, would now be able to comply “for the price of a Big Mac”.

He said individual name checks performed on AMLcheck would only cost $3 dollars each.

A monthly subscription fee will also apply.

For businesses with less than 10 people, that fee will be $10 per month. The maximum amount will be about $100 for large institutions.

Philips said he was confident that the tool would be able to take on board any changes in anti-money laundering legislation when it is finalised.

“One of the great benefits of AMLcheck is that it's enormously flexible. As soon as any new legislation comes out we'll start remodelling,” he said.

Financial services industry figures have expressed their approval of the Government’s handling of plans for anti-money laundering legislation so far.

It is likely that future mandatory requirement will force financial planners to go through detailed client identity procedures but just for higher risk customers. Risk triggers are still to be devised by Government and industry.