AML Certificate streamlined for 2026

The Law Society of Scotland is to significantly streamline the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Certificate for 2026, with the submission period now opening in May.

The AML Certificate is a mandatory annual questionnaire for all firms that fall under the Money Laundering Regulations and enables the Law Society to understand risks across the sector. It gathers information on firms’ services, products and clients, and is a key part of the Law Society’s legal duty to apply a risk-based approach to AML oversight.

The revised AML Certificate, covering business conducted across 2025, will concentrate on collecting core information, such as scope of work and the confirmation of Beneficial Owners, Officers and Managers. Full details will be issued to firms in early 2026.

It is anticipated that the majority of the information requested in 2026 will already be documented in firms’ Practice‑Wide Risk Assessments and Policies, Controls, and Procedures. As such, the time required to complete the certificate is expected to be notably less than previous years.

In addition, the opening of the AML Certificate submission period will move from February to May 2026, in order to avoid overlap with the end of the UK financial year.

Gemma Turnbull, Head of AML at the Law Society of Scotland, said: “We understand that completing the AML Certificate requires a significant amount of time and effort, and we have always appreciated the efforts and dedication that members have put into pulling the data together.

“After careful consideration, we have decided to streamline the upcoming AML Certificate, so that we can focus on tailoring the design of the certificate going forward to ease the data collection burden on firms and ensure the process is more operationally effective and less demanding.

“The certificate will continue to evolve and we plan to publish details of the AML Certificate for 2027 as soon as we can next year in order to enable members to prepare.”