Majority of law firms submitting no Suspicious Activity Reports – Study

New research has revealed that just two in five law firms submitted any Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) over the last two years on average.

The study – conducted by risk management platform Thirdfort – found solicitors in the UK submitted 3,436 SARs in 2021/2022. Meanwhile, there were 9,813 registered law firms at the end of March 2022, according to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.

So, if each firm were to submit just one SAR, this would account for just 35% of law firms. Yet if certain firms are submitting numerous SARs, the actual proportion of firms submitting reports could be “significantly lower”, said Thirdfort.

Overall, it’s said solicitors make up 0.3% of the total number of SARs submitted across all sectors. Indeed, the number of reports by law firms is “low in comparison to other regulated sectors”, said Harriet Holmes, AML Services Manager at Thirdfort.

This low SAR submission rate comes even though HM Treasury and the Home Office assessed lawyers at “high” risk for money laundering, said Thirdfort, with conveyancing reportedly one of the areas presenting the highest risk.

However, Thirdfort’s research also revealed the total number of SARs submitted by solicitors increased by 20% in 2021/2022 compared to the previous year, rising from 2,875 to 3,436 respectively.

Month	SARs: 2020/2021	DAML SARs*: 2020/2021	Sars: 2021/2022	DAML SARs*: 2021/2022
April	85	56	183	127
May	92	66	157	107
June	110	74	139	86
July	162	103	148	100
Aug	144	97	139	96
September	132	88	141	91
October	163	110	195	130
November	167	103	188	147
December	147	102	182	125
January	85	58	178	114
February	205	141	179	118
March	223	162	223	143
Total	1,715	1,160	2,052	1,384
Combined total	2,875		3,436

Article Credit: https://todaysconveyancer.co.uk/majority-law-firms-submitting-no-suspicious-activity-reports-study/