The burden of complying with new anti-money laundering (AML) regulations is not proportionate to the funds recovered from launderers, according to new research.

For every suspicious activity report submitted, an estimated £618 is recovered from criminals, according to the Home Office and Serious Organised Crime Agency.

However, research by the Law Society’s anti-money laundering unit says that firms are using up ‘disproportionate’ amounts of time and resources implementing systems, training staff and carrying out risk assessments.

Time constraints on implementing AML systems and the lack of publicly available data on potential money launderers were reported as the greatest challenges. Although the majority of the 55 participant firms did not record the annual costs of AML, those that did reported figures of between £4,000 and £1.5m.

Firms failing to put AML systems in place or train staff could face criminal sanctions.