The year 2017 is a good place to start as it was a big year for the UK financial crime legislative landscape. The UK was then a member of the European Union and June of that year was when EU member states had to transpose into their domestic law the provisions of the EU’s fourth money laundering directive. This directive constituted a major advancement on its predecessor and included, specifically, a requirement to create centrally held registers of the beneficial owners of corporate entities. Another 2017 arrival on the UK statute books built upon the provisions of the then ground-breaking Bribery Act 2010 to create the UK’s second offence of failing to prevent wrong-doing by another. This time it was tax evasion that came within the crosshairs of the legislators as the failure to prevent tax evasion was criminalised in the Criminal Finances Act 2017.
The UK’s departure from the EU meant that several Acts and subsidiary legislation had to be amended. On a more than cosmetic scale, was the need for the UK to impose sanctions independently of the EU. This required the enactment of the Sanctions and Anti-money Laundering Act 2018. No longer being part of the EU, the UK also created its own list of high-risk countries for anti-money laundering purposes.
Notwithstanding its withdrawal from the EU, the UK implemented the fifth money laundering directive and did so by making amendments to the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations.
These developments have given rise to the following: