United Kingdom: Consultation results on amendments to the money laundering, terrorist financing and transfer of funds regulations

On 15 July 2022, the UK Treasury published its consultation results of "Amendments to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017 Statutory Instrument 2022". The consultation aims to update the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations (the MLRs) and concerns account information service providers and payment initiation service providers, telecoms, bill payment service providers, digital and IT service providers, etc. The consultation found that there is industry concern around the amount of personal data collected from both senders and recipients for digital asset transfers when using unhosted wallets. Unhosted wallets do not present a high risk when they are used for illicit financing and therefore the UK Treasury intends to amend the level of data required to be collected. Also, the industry expressed concern about the time needed to implement such an amendment.