FSR and Corporate Crime Notes

Transparency in enforcement
On 27 February 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published CP24/2: Our Enforcement Guide and publicising enforcement investigations – a new approach, which sets out a proposal that would see the regulator publicly announce the opening and progress of investigations, and other proposed changes to simplify the FCA’s Enforcement Guide (EG). A

On December 2023, the Spanish Constitutional Court issued a judgment that reopened the issue of the transfer of legal entities’ criminal liability following a corporate acquisition. The judgment was related to a fine imposed by the Spanish Council of Ministers on Banco Santander regarding an alleged breach by Banco Popular of money laundering provisions before

On 7 March 2024, Australia’s anti-money laundering (AML) regulator, AUSTRAC, announced the commencement of an enforcement investigation into whether Hillside (Australia New Media) Pty Limited, which trades in Australia as Bet365, has complied with its obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act).
While AUSTRAC has engaged in several enforcement investigations

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (the ECCTA) received Royal Assent in October 2023. As part of significant reform to the UK’s corporate criminal liability regime, among other reforms, the ECCTA introduced a new offence of failure to prevent fraud (the FTP Fraud Offence), which is expected to come into force by 2025,

Almost all EU Member States have now implemented Directive (EU) No. 2019/1937 “on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law” (the “Whistleblower Directive”) and the last deadlines for companies to put whistleblowing processes in place passed at the end of last year.

The Whistleblowing Directive, and the implementing laws at national level,

Herbert Smith Freehills’ CC&I team has continued and updated its contribution of China and Hong Kong Q&As to the Lexology Panoramic: Anti-Bribery & Corruption 2024 guide.

The Q&As discuss a wide range of issues pertaining to domestic and foreign bribery in China and Hong Kong, including the legal framework, public and private sector bribery,

The government has made new regulations (the 2024 Order) to update the exemptions in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotions) Order (2005) (the FPO), and the equivalent exemptions in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Promotion of Collective Investment Schemes) Order 2001 (PCIS), relating to high net worth individuals and sophisticated

In this post we provide a round-up of key recent UK sanctions developments, including the introduction of new sanctions legislation regarding the diamond industry, a new General Licence and the launch of an inquiry into the effectiveness of sanctions.

New sanctions legislation
The first amending regulations of 2024 have been published: the Russia (Sanctions) (EU

In the first of our “crossover” episodes, Susannah Cogman is joined by Jenny Stainsby from HSF’s Financial Services Regulatory team to look at the financial sector’s current focus on APP fraud, its interaction with the offence of failure to prevent fraud, and other steps being taken to tackle this widespread fraud typology.

Herbert Smith Freehills

In this bulletin, we set out recent regulatory developments in relation to virtual asset activities in both Hong Kong and Singapore.
In Hong Kong, to reflect the increasing demand for investment products providing exposure to virtual assets (VAs) which are available to both retail and professional investors, the government and the financial regulators have taken