Parliamentary Reports Back Improvements to the Supervision and Prosecution of Economic Crime

In this article we summarise some of the key points arising from two important reports regarding economic crime in the UK which have been published in recent weeks.

On 8 March 2019, the House of Commons' Treasury Committee published its "Economic Crime – Anti-money laundering supervision and sanctions implementation" report (the "Treasury Committee Report"), which suggests improvements to be made in order to tackle economic crime and develop anti-money laundering ("AML") supervision.

On 14 March 2019, the House of Lords' Select Committee on the Bribery Act 2010 ("UKBA") published a report titled "The Bribery Act 2010: post-legislative scrutiny" (the "UKBA Report") which considered whether the Act is achieving its intended purposes.

We outline some of the key conclusions and recommendations of the reports, including in relation to:

• Proposed Legislative Reform – including potential changes to corporate criminal liability and the Bribery Act Guidance in relation to the "adequate procedures" defence and corporate hospitality;
• Deferred Prosecution Agreements ("DPAs") – suggested improvements including in relation to the court's discretion, discounts, the prosecution of individuals and their application to smaller companies;
• AML Supervision – the risks of the current approach to AML supervision by multiple bodies and suggested improvements;
• Financials Sanctions – the effectiveness of sanctions for economic crime, including the possibility of introducing a discretion to block UK listings on the grounds of national security and the influence of e.g. Russian money in the UK;
• Derisking – recommend strategic action to combat derisking;
• Suspicious Activity Reports ("SARs") – consideration of the SARs reform programme and suggested improvements;
• Information Flows – potential information flows at bank level and the National Economic Crime Centre's (the "NECC") role as a co-ordinator of law enforcement, regulators and the private sector; and
• Resources and Delays – the impact of delays and a lack of resources on combatting economic crime.

Please click here to read our full briefing.