Neil Baker

Britain’s new coalition government is pushing ahead with its promise to dismantle the country’s Financial Services Authority and create a new agency to fight white-collar crime. But already concerns are emerging that the move could stall enforcement efforts, especially against insider trading. Chancellor George Osborne used a June 16 speech in London to pledge that […]

Last year the United Kingdom finally appeared to be delivering on its promise to crack down on bribery and corruption. The Serious Fraud Office scored its first-ever successful conviction of a company for fraud and hoped that would telegraph a clear message to troubled corporations: Agree to a plea deal with us, or face prosecution […]

British lawmakers are poised to approve the most sweeping reforms of anti-bribery law in the United Kingdom in more than a century, creating a new anti-corruption regime that many believe will be sterner than even the United States’ dreaded Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Bribery Bill, as it formally known in Parliament, is a close […]

A war of words is brewing in the United Kingdom—about how many words should go into corporate reports. Britain’s top corporate regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, is stepping up complaints that companies are failing to deliver informative annual reports that shareholders can use. Writers of the reports are firing back that the reports have become […]

Earlier this fall, the United Kingdom scored its first-ever conviction against a company for overseas bribery, 10 years after the country first pledged to crack down on such abuse. Now more cases—and legislation—are on the way, and Britain may finally be delivering on its promise to get tough on corruption. That first conviction, against construction […]

Prosecution of corporate fraud has just taken a giant step forward in the United Kingdom. The case against Mabey & Johnson, a construction firm accused of using bribes to win business, made history earlier this month when the company agreed to plead guilty to charges filed by the British government’s Serious Fraud Office. It is […]

Large British companies and foreign businesses that pay U.K. taxes are suddenly facing a big increase in their tax compliance costs, thanks to a surprise proposal announced in the government’s recent budget. The plan is to make a company’s senior accounting officer—typically the CFO—personally responsible for the adequacy of the company’s tax systems. An “SAO” […]

World leaders at the G-20 summit in London last week pledged to make accounting reform a pillar of their efforts to restore stability to the global financial system. Accounting rulemakers meeting in the city at the same time, however, voiced concerns that politicians were pushing reform too fast and in the wrong direction. Most of […]

The long arm of U.S. regulatory compliance is now reaching ever more deeply into overseas corporations—even, when necessary, reaching over the shoulder of local regulators not enforcing their own standards to U.S. liking. American prosecutors have spent the better part of a decade pushing the boundaries of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies […]