PIMFA
FINANCIAL CRIME
Financial Crime is broadly any criminal conduct relating to money or financial services, including, for example, fraud, money laundering, the misuse of information (such as insider trading), bribery and corruption, handling the proceeds of crime, financing terrorism, or cybercrime. According to the Office of National Statistics, fraud was the most common crime type between April 2022-March 2023, with an estimated 3.5 million incidents of fraud in the UK experienced by adults aged 16 and over.
The PIMFA Financial Crime Committee facilitates discussion across all significant matters of financial crime, ensuring that member firms are kept fully informed and compliant with legislative and regulatory developments and are provided with the latest intelligence, approaches and tools to combat financial crime effectively.
latest news
Serious Fraud Office: ‘Failure to prevent fraud’ offence comes into effect
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced that the new corporate criminal offence of ‘failure to prevent fraud’ has come into effect (as of 1 September) and will hold large organisations criminally liable where an employee, agent, subsidiary, or other ‘associated person’ commits a fraud intending to benefit the organisation.
The SFO provides examples (see below) and notes that firms will have to demonstrate that reasonable fraud prevention measures were in place at the time the fraud was committed.
- Dishonest sales practices.
- Hiding important information from consumers or investors.
- Dishonest practices in financial markets.
Further information can be found here.
HM Treasury draft Statutory Instrument – Money Laundering Regulations amendments
HMT have published a draft Statutory Instrument (SI) for technical consultation on proposed amendments to the money laundering regulations following on from their response to the consultation on Improving the Effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations.
This is a technical consultation seeking feedback on the practical operability, clarity, and effectiveness of the SI, including changes to customer due diligence, pooled client accounts, crypt-asset regulation, and trust registration.
The draft SI is accompanied by a policy note detailing the policy intent of the SI measures.
Read more details here.
Home Office: Economic Crime Plan 2 – outcomes progress report
The Home Office has published a report which provides a summary of key insights from the priority outcomes and indicators being monitored as part of the Economic Crime Plan 2 (ECP2) outcomes framework.
The ECP2 report also notes progress in developing new data to address limitations and improve the ability to comprehensively measure performance.
The Home Office aims to publish an update to this report which will include further data development activities in the financial year ending 2027.
Access the report here.
