As the Institute of Business Ethics calls for City law firms to apply much tougher anti-money laundering controls to prospective clients, Ellen Gallagher argues that over-compliance risks depriving individuals of access to justice.

Stringent financial crime controls already apply across the UK regulated sector, including for lawyers and financial services firms. The regulations promote an excess of caution, and a low threshold for off-boarding customers. The FCA recently confirmed that 408,000 UK banking customers were “debanked” in the last year due to compliance with financial crime controls.

The

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