Applicable to :

- Law firms
- Accounting practices
- Auctioneers
- Real Estate Agents
- Management and other consultancy firms

In current parlance, professional practices are "gatekeepers."

Because of this, regulators are increasing the pressure on them to make suspicious transaction reports. Some are resisting - and some legal professional bodies have taken their governments to court claiming that their client's right to confidentiality overrides all attempts to force disclosure. It is unlikely that this will achieve widespread success.

As a result, professional practices are finding themselves subject to KYC requirements that are the same as or very similar to large financial institutions. Transaction monitoring will probably be unsuitable for many firms but there is nevertheless a need to be able to identify suspicious behaviour and Risk Values is therefore a more suitable tool for such practices than transaction monitoring.

In some countries, law firms are already required to make suspicious transaction reports - and the enlargement of the application of certain know your customer procedures in the USA as a result of legislation passed in late 2001 will make more law firms subject to that requirement.