SAR Wars: A New Approach?

Further to Bailiwick of Guernsey Consent Regime guidance issued in April 2023 (Guidance), a recent change in approach from the Guernsey Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is set to make the difficult role of Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) more challenging.

The FIU have previously adopted a generally helpful, informed and risk based approach in considering consent requests. Typically the FIU would grant consent to institutions to act where it was satisfied there was no real risk of money laundering, having considered the facts of the matter including any response, or lack thereof, from relevant foreign agencies to information it had shared.

Recent experience suggests that the FIU no longer intends to exercise independent consideration of the underlying suspicions in responding to consent requests, rather it will adopt the more limited approach of only granting consent where the FIU identifies an interest to law enforcement to do so.