Compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering Act in the auditing and accounting industry

Abstract

Economic crime is a widespread societal concern threatening the integrity of financial systems and the rule of law. Following the increased recognition of combating money laundering and terrorist financing, we intend to investigate how auditors and accountants perceive and comply with the AML regulations. This leads to the following research question for the master thesis: Do auditors and accountants experience challenges in complying with the requirements determined in the AML regulations? If that is indeed the case, what are the reasons? We identified several pertinent and intriguing findings during our empirical study. Concerning compliance with the AML regulations, we observed a gap between the governmental bodies´ expectations and the industries´ perceptions. Consequently, several auditors and accountants, including professional associations, experience difficulties meeting the requirements of the regulations. On the other hand, we found few auditors and accountants regarding their knowledge and measures concerning the AML regulations as inadequate; they tend to blame governmental bodies and professional associations for insufficient guidance instead of partly being self-critical of why the compliance is challenging. Based on the findings from our research, we find it appropriate to conclude most auditors and accountants regard comprehension and compliance with the AML regulations as demanding. The reasons are, among others, comprehensive regulations, lack of knowledge, as well as lack of time, attention, and training devoted to this subject. Consequently, we believe there is a need for improvement from all pertinent actors in the auditing and accounting industry to ensure efficient compliance with the AML regulations.