Competency of Professional Accountant in Malaysia as Attributes towards Compliance of AMLA 2001

Abstract

Money laundering offences have becoming important issues worldwide. Within the accounting fraternity, discussions have involved an important issue related to the low level of compliance by professional accountants towards the anti-money laundering regime in Malaysia. In the context of this study, anti-money laundering regime refers to both the legislative requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA 2001) and the international standards requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Since the introduction of AMLA 2001, professional accountants (includes auditors, tax consultants and practicing accountants) have been named as a reporting institution. As a reporting institution, professional accountants are required to implement compliance programs and to submit related suspicious transaction reports. Three compliance programs named by the anti-money laundering regime are namely “Know your customers or KYC”, “Clients due Diligent CDD” and “Record keeping”. This study was undertaken to examine the importance of competency and training among professional accountant towards money laundering compliance. This study used Protection Motivation Theory to explain on the importance of that attributes. A questionnaire survey was developed and sent to professional accountants. Findings from this study have identified that “competency & training” found to be significantly related to the level of compliance towards anti-money laundering regime.