Companies House set for ‘biggest shakeup’ under U.K. corporate transparency bill
By 
Kyle Brasseur2023-10-26T19:07:00
The United Kingdom adopted a bill aimed at stemming the flow of dirty money coming into the country through enhancements to government agency capabilities and law enforcement.
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act received royal assent Thursday. The bill, introduced in September 2022, provides the United Kingdom with “world-leading powers” to allow its authorities to “target organized criminals and others seeking to abuse the U.K.’s open economy,” the government said in a news release.
Among the bill’s provisions, Companies House, the U.K. agency that maintains the country’s corporate registers, will receive enhanced abilities to verify the identities of company directors and remove fraudulently registered organizations.
Related articles
-
PremiumLexisNexis survey: Compliance costs soared for U.K. banks in 2023
Nearly all but a tiny minority of financial institutions saw their costs of financial crime compliance rise in 2023, a survey by LexisNexis and Oxford Economics found.
-
PremiumAll eyes on Companies House in U.K. corporate transparency efforts
The success of the U.K.’s latest legislative efforts to tackle financial crime depends on the capability of transforming what is often regarded as one of the country’s most passive regulators into a proactive—even aggressive—prosecuting authority.
-
News BriefFRC proposes auditors closer scrutinize noncompliance
The U.K. Financial Reporting Council is the latest regulator to propose standard changes that would require auditors to play a larger role in detecting and reporting instances of noncompliance when reviewing company financial statements.
More from Regulatory Policy
-
PremiumU.K. FCA establishes framework for unlisted companies to trade shares on a ‘buyer-beware’ basis
Private companies that are keen to trade their shares but do not wish to become listed have gained another way to trade their shares. The U.K. government completed its initial review and published rules for the system in June.
-
ArticleDOJ is ramping up, not ramping down, health care fraud enforcement
While the Trump administration may have shifted away from pursuing small, white-collar, financial crimes, its focus on health care fraud cases is as hot as ever.
-
ArticleU.K. enforcement appetite over off-channel comms grows as U.S. wanes
The U.K’.s financial regulator has given a strong indication that financial firms’ use of unauthorized devices and apps is under scrutiny and that policies around off-channel communications need to be tightened up.