EMR explains cheque cashing move

Metal recyclinggiant European Metal Recycling (EMR) has come under fire from some members of the industry after introducing a cheque cashing facility across its UK yards, in the wake of the cash ban on scrap purchases.

The ban, which came into effect on December 3, is intended to prevent the anonymous sale of illegally obtained scrap to curb the incidence of metal theft.

Nowsome sources within the scrap industry claim that as a result of the cheque cashing facility EMR will have an unfair advantage over smaller yards, who say they are unable to offer their customers the service due to the cost.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com,one metal recycler from northern England, said: It is a ridiculous situation. EMR are too big to have anything forced upon them. This is definitely taking business away from us.

But, EMR says that the move is within the spirit of the law and does not reduce traceability for scrap metal, which is the overriding aim of the cash ban.

Convenient

A spokesman for the company said: EMR have developed a range of payment methods in response to the LASPO Act and the introduction of the cash ban from the 3rd of December. Our objective has been to offer convenient, cost effective and above all legally compliant methods of payment.

To achieve this we have introduced a range of payment methods including instant bank transfer, pre-paid card and cheque payment. With all of these services we have negotiated hard with the service providers to keep costs to a minimum for our suppliers.

The company will act as an agent of a cheque cashing company, and as such will be able to offer cash to customers on site.

Legislation

The spokesman added: All relevant members of staff have been trained and third party assessed as competent in this regard and all our sites have been registered with HMRC as agents under the relevant Money Service Business Regulations.

Before embarking on this course of action we took great care to satisfy ourselves that it was compliant with both the letter and the spirit of the law, including discussions with senior police officers and HMRC Home Office Guidance on the cash ban legislation clearly states The overriding requirement is for transactions to have traceability and to provide an effective audit trail.

All our methods of payment meet this test, as we have adopted appropriate standards of identity checking what is referred to as KYC, or know your customer and have built robust systems which clearly demonstrate our compliance.