Report finds business is positive about national security regulations

Researchers at the OU have found that most financial services firms surveyed about the effects of incorporating national security regulations into their businesses are positive about it

In a report titled Taking Liberties released on 28 September by The Leverhulme Trust, Dr Kirstie Ball and researchers at the University's Business School reveal that responses from 85 financial services representatives show that larger financial services organisations have managed to incorporate the new Anti Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Finance regulations into their businesses, benefiting from sophisticated computer systems to help identify suspicious transactions.

They found that smaller firms found compliance with the regulation costly by comparison.

The researchers, working under the umbrella of CRISP, the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy, also found that front line staff managed to adapt more effectively and managed to continue the customer interaction as normal while verifying any suspicions about the customer, in businesses which had strong Customer Relationship Management Systems.

Commenting on these findings, Dr Ball said: "In carrying out this research, we recognised almost immediately how Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terror Finance Regulations required the capture of data at great expense to the financial services industry and there seemed to be no return on this investment. Responses from the industry varied but what emerges strongly is how the industry has taken the practice of Anti Money Laundering and considered it as a positive aspect of their business."
 
Money Laundering Regulations came into being in 2007 and the Counter-Terrorism Act came into force in 2008.

A copy of Taking Liberties: Anti Money Laundering/Counter Terror Finance Regulations and The Financial Services Sector can be found here.