Upcoming Moneylenders AML/CFT Thematic Project

The Financial Services Authority (“the Authority”) is currently planning a thematic project involving businesses registered to undertake the activities of lending, financial leasing, and the provision of financial guarantees (“moneylenders”), which is intended to run from 2024 and beyond.

The Authority’s AML/CFT Supervision Division will lead the thematic project, to review the selected moneylenders businesses as defined in Schedule 1 of the Designated Businesses (Registration and Oversight) Act 2015.

This thematic will focus on certain elements of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Code 2019 (“the Code”). The focus of the project work and request for relevant documentation to be provided to the Authority will be sent to relevant designated businesses at the same time as they are notified of their part in the thematic project. The nature and scale of the thematic project means that notifications, and the involvement of individual designated businesses, will be staged over a period of time.

Further assistance and guidance on the Code is available on the Authority’s AML/CFT webpage. Useful documents include but are not limited to the Anti-Money Laundering & Countering the Financing of Terrorism Handbook and the Moneylenders and Providers of financial guarantees / commitments Sector Specific Guidance Notes - August 2021.

Tristan Caley, Senior Manager in the Authority’s AML/CFT Supervision Division, said: “The moneylending sector is a supervised sector in respect of AML/CFT/CPF and this thematic exercise presents a great opportunity to gain a better overview of the varied and wide sector on the Island, as part of the review and refresh of ML, TF and PF risk assessments for the Isle of Man.

As the Authority aims to work closely with the sector, this thematic allows us to test and evidence how supervised entities are meeting their AML/CFT obligations. Through increased engagement with businesses during the project and as we progress, we hope to discover and highlight some best practice which can be shared with the wider industry, through our public thematic reports, as well as updating the sector specific guidance.

This thematic work will continue to add to the Authority’s wider AML/CFT evidential understanding and framework, as the Authority continues with industry engagement and thematic projects.