No fees, please

Barristers present a ‘very low risk’ when it comes to money laundering and should not have to pay fees for an Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS), the Bar Council has argued. In a robust response to the Financial Conduct Authority’s proposal that barristers pay fees towards the proposed regulatory body, the Council questions why it should pay for ‘a supervisor’s supervisor’ that is required because of ‘the activities of estate agents and accountants’. It points out that ‘there are no historic examples in the public domain of barristers engaging in money laundering or terrorist financing activities on behalf of their clients’.