Norton Rose Fulbright releases Global Anti-Money Laundering & Sanctions Compliance Survey

Norton Rose Fulbright LLP has released its 2021 Global Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions Compliance Survey.

Commenting on the survey, Senior Advisor Sven Stumbauer said: “This year we had nearly 400 respondents from 77 jurisdictions participating in our survey. The results highlight the ongoing challenges financial institutions around the globe are experiencing as regulatory expectations continue to evolve.”

Survey highlights
Increasing regulatory scrutiny is here to stay:

• 71% received increased regulatory scrutiny in 2020
• 81% expect increased regulatory scrutiny to continue in 2021

Spending on AML and sanctions compliance has continued to increase:

• 41% consider their AML and sanctions compliance budget inadequate or severely inadequate
• 74% expect an increase in their AML and sanctions compliance-related spending

Board of Directors engagement is lacking:

• 36% do not provide AML/sanctions training to the board of directors or are unaware if the board is being briefed on AML/sanctions matters

Adequate risk management appears to be lacking:

• 65% employed a de-risking strategy to manage their AML and sanctions exposure, while
• 56% identified risk assessments as the top investment area in their AML compliance efforts
• 66% did not perform independent reviews of their AML/sanctions compliance program in the past 12 months.