Money laundering
What is money laundering?
Money laundering is what criminals use to give the proceeds from their criminal activities the appearance of being legitimate. Criminal proceeds are "cleaned up" by various means and then fed back into the financial system after a series of transactions designed to disguise their origin.
Anti Money Laundering Regulations
L&Q is required by law to comply with UK Anti Money
Laundering Regulations (AML Regulations). Whether you are a new or
existing customer, we may therefore need to confirm your
identity.
We may do this by:
- asking you to provide originals of paper identity evidence,
- and check your identity electronically by us using a reference
agency to search sources of information relating to you. (This will
not affect your credit rating)
Regulations and supervision
The AML Regulations apply to many organisations. In our case the Office of Fair Trading is the government agency responsible for ensuring we comply with the regulations.
It is a criminal offense not to comply with the requirements and heavy fines or even prison sentences of up to fourteen years can be imposed under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
We have therefore registered with the Office of Fair Trading and put in place systems and controls to reduce the risk of being targeted by money launderers.