Information Sharing
The Act provides for a legal gateway for the sharing of information between entities within the regulated sector (e.g. banks) and between those entities and law enforcement, in order to encourage better use of public and private sector resources to combat money laundering.
	The private sector holds data on financial transactions and related personal data; the law enforcement agencies hold details of criminals, and intelligence on crime. When this data has been shared, such as under the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) pilot, there have been positive outcomes for both sectors. Although existing data protection legislation allows for the sharing of information for the prevention and detection of crime, regulated companies are concerned that there should be express legal cover that is directly related to the anti-money laundering regime, in order to reduce the risk of civil litigation for breach of confidentiality.
	The Act allows for regulated bodies to share information with each other, where they have notified the NCA that they suspect activity is related to money laundering. This measure enables the submission of joint disclosure reports, which bring together information from multiple reporters into a single SAR that provides the whole picture to law enforcement agencies. To begin with, this measure will be applied to financial sector organisations – some of which are already part of the JMLIT – but it can be extended to all of the regulated sector in due course.