Lately, money laundering activities have received a lot of attention in the auditing and accounting field due to pressures from the EU. Legislative changes have caused an urgency in preventative measures against money laundering and reporting of suspicious activity. Accordingly, the selected subject is current and important to acknowledge in the work of auditors and accountants. Therefore, this study aims to examine the professional's adaptive ability in their practices to remain compliant with the developing Anti-Money Laundering regulations within the European Union. With a focus on professional skepticism the study will contribute to regulatory compliance research by analyzing documents and asking practitioners’ perspectives on their ability to judge when skeptical action is situationally appropriate. Regulatory compliance and the inter-play of professionals is the core issue which the researchers mean to address. The adapted approach is to conceptualize a general theory by interviewing individuals with expertise in the field and gaining their perspectives on the matter. An important part of this process is to gather relevant information so that it can be used as a tool to understand the perspectives as best as possible. Beyond reviewing literature this also involves document analysis. The document analysis examines legal documents and reports to gain a rudimentary understanding of how investigated professionals in Sweden are judged in different situations. The study's findings suggest that skeptical attitudes typically have a preventative function amongst both auditors and accountants to avoid high-risk clients. Therefore, minimizing the risk of facing a dilemma of whether to file a suspicious activity report against a client. Moreover, in the make-up of Professional Skepticism, attitude seemingly has increased weight contra the individual's mindset as the transition to a stronger presence of liquid transactions and more efficient analysis methods illegitimize the reasoning behind some situational accounting techniques. Moreover, the observed reality of the Swedish accounting and auditing professional is an increase in the awareness of the implemented laws. Adaptability and use of education, experiences, work programs and tools play a key role in the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall work within the frames of the Swedish legal systems and to detect and decrease illegal activities. To that extent, professionals also have differing outsets depending on the firms' resources and the individuals' roles in the firm. The study contributes to knowledge of the effect of the progressive changes to Anti-Money Laundering regulations on audit and accounting practitioners, before the Money Laundering Act (2014:307) until today, as the intention is for professionals to better understand the components relevant to assertive decision-making with respect to money laundering regulation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-226866 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Carlson, Fredrik, Hägglund, Elin |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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