The FCA Takeover

⚖️ The FCA Takeover: Why the End of Professional Body AML Supervision Is Long Overdue

For years, the UK’s accountancy and bookkeeping professions have lived under a fragmented patchwork of anti-money-laundering (AML) supervision.  Professional bodies, each with their own interpretation, paperwork, and penalties, have acted as both the guardian and the enforcer of AML compliance. Add HMRC to that mix, and things became confusing.

Now, with the government’s decision to hand AML supervision to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), that era is finally coming to an end.

And honestly?
It’s about time.

The Poacher and the Gamekeeper

Professional bodies have tried for years to balance an impossible contradiction. On one hand, they’re supposed to support their members by championing small firms, raising standards, and growing the profession. On the other, they’ve been charged with policing those same members under criminal legislation.

You can’t be the trusted mentor on Monday and the disciplinary panel on Tuesday.
That’s not balanced regulation. It’s conflicted by design.

The Money Problem No One Wanted to Talk About

AML supervision has quietly become a cash cow for professional bodies.

While membership numbers have stagnated, AML supervision fees have propped up their finances and justified their regulatory presence. For smaller bodies like the IAB and ICB, it’s not just a service line. It’s their main source of income.

That dependency has blurred the line between purpose and profit.
When your revenue depends on enforcement, you inevitably lean towards heavier punishment and lighter guidance.

It’s easier, and more lucrative, to issue penalties than to roll up your sleeves and actually help firms get things right.

Heavy on Punishment, Light on Support

Ask most small practices what they’ve actually gained from their professional bodies in recent years, and the answers are depressingly consistent:

Little or no practical guidance

Generic “tick-box” templates that don’t reflect real-world risk

Long silences followed by heavy-handed inspection letters

For a regime supposedly built on education and prevention, most bookkeepers and accountants have felt policed, not supported.

It’s no wonder trust has eroded.

Why the FCA’s Move Makes Sense

The government’s decision to make the FCA the Single Professional Services Supervisor (SPSS) isn’t about convenience. It’s about confidence. The Treasury and OPBAS have spent years flagging weaknesses in the current system, including inconsistent enforcement, poor transparency, and conflicts of interest.

Centralising AML supervision under the FCA offers:

One consistent standard

Clear accountability

Proper separation between membership and enforcement

For the first time, supervision might actually mean supervision, not fundraising.

Why the Professional Bodies Are Panicking

This announcement has sent shockwaves through the smaller institutes.

Bodies like the IAB and ICB built their regulatory identity around AML supervision. It gave them legitimacy, income, and a captive audience of “members” who had to stay subscribed to stay compliant.

Take that away, and you take away the core of their business model.
They’ll need to reinvent themselves fast or risk becoming irrelevant.

A Chance to Reset the Profession

This isn’t bad news for accountants or bookkeepers. It’s a long-overdue reset.

It’s a chance to separate compliance from community. To replace fear-based regulation with consistent, transparent oversight. And to push professional bodies to return to what they should always have been: organisations that serve their members, not police them.

My Take

This was inevitable and necessary.

The “poacher and gamekeeper” model has been broken from day one. The professional bodies have been heavy with punishment and light with guidance, and in doing so they’ve alienated the very people they exist to support.

The FCA’s move won’t be painless, but it will bring something we’ve all been missing: independence, consistency, and a bit of common sense.

For the professional bodies, this is a reckoning.  A chance to get back to the core role of supporting bookkeepers.
For the profession, it might just be a clean slate.