The SRA is turning its attention to this. It is anyway a sensible thing to do for any business - risk assess a client and a job before taking it on. This is referred to in quality marks across many industry and service sectors as well as the legal services sector. As well as this the SRA has a focus on the prevention of financial crime. In July 2024 the SRA started to include a request to see this when doing AML Inspections.
In a webinar by the SRA in February 2024 the SRA said:
"Our recent thematic review of client/matter risk assessments found that less than half of those produced within firms were compliant with the rules. This led to us issuing a warning notice on the issue."
The SRA have created a template for Client & Matter Risk Assessments (CMRA). We have put a copy here which you may download.
https://hunningsconsultancy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/cmra-template.docx
Here you may view the Guide the SRA produced in 2024 into Completing the Client & Matter Risk Assessments:
Here is a link to their web page from which this came and which has other information from them:
Assistance with your AML & Onboarding Compliance
We provide a lot of AML support to businesses in the Legal Sector. Please see below for a summary and links for further information.
Feel free to contact us, ideally by using the 'How can we help you?' form below.
