8.3.1. United Kingdom Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS)

278. In 2019, OPBAS established two new Intelligence Sharing Expert Working Groups (ISEWGs) with the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC). The ISEWGs are loosely based on the UK's existing Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) model involving law enforcement and the financial services sector, and are globally pioneering in public private intelligence sharing forums for the legal and accountancy professions.

279. There is an ISEWG for each sector with members consisting of DNFBP AML supervisors, law enforcement (via the NECC), Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the Financial Conduct Authority and OPBAS. Both ISEWGs have agreed published Terms of Reference. The ISEWGs have two distinct functions: strategic and tactical. The strategic element involves discussion and consideration by all members on the high-level threats and emerging risks for their sector. Members give anonymised real-life case examples of where they have found a specific money laundering risk identified from their supervisory work, along with mitigating actions. The strategic sessions have also seen the development of a drafting group of volunteer supervisors who receive JMLIT alerts and redraft them to make them relevant to their sector.