Consistent polls are showing that the Labour Party will be in for a 1997-style landslide come the next British general election, expected sometime in 2024. In the run up to the election, the Labour Party have been setting out their agenda for government. In this blog, we examine the likely regulatory priorities for government, and what this could mean for compliance.
Continue readingLast week saw the third in VinciWorks’ successful series of AML core group meetings and the first of 2024. These meetings are an opportunity for AML professionals in the world’s leading law firms to come together to share ideas and best practice hosted and facilitated by the VinciWorks and Compliance Office team.
VinciWorks’ Business Development Director Tom Evans gave a recap of the Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) and its impact on KYC processes for firms. ECCTA has brought the biggest ever changes to Companies House since its inception, giving it new powers to act as an active gatekeeper to check and reject company registration details. ECCTA also introduces reforms to how LLPs are managed. LLPs must now have a UK-registered office. Many of the core group members have set up working groups on ECCTA.
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It’s hard to predict what lies in artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) regulatory future for the simple reason that AI’s technology is constantly evolving. This means its issues, of bias or copyright or lack of transparency, to name a few will continue to shape the regulatory agenda for many years to come.
Two news stories highlight the complex relationship companies have with AI and the often circuitous path they will have to take to achieve some sort of control over this nearly unmanageable technology.
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Following earlier rounds of US sanctions on Hamas, the US is now offering up to $10 million for information on five Hamas financiers or anything leading to the disruption of the Palestinian terror group’s financial mechanisms, the State Department reported. The five Hamas financial facilitators under this reward offer are named as Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Khair, Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb, Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah, and Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah.
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In a significant move, the Japanese government has announced fresh sanctions targeting three senior members of Hamas. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi revealed on Tuesday that the sanctions would include the freezing of assets and restrictions on payments and capital transactions involving the specified individuals. The decision comes in response to their alleged involvement in the October 7th attacks by Hamas on Israel, with concerns about their ability to use funds to finance further terrorist activities. The government believes that these individuals hold positions enabling them to utilise funds for supporting terrorist activities.
Meanwhile, just a few days later, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on individuals and groups accused of facilitating the flow of Iranian financial assistance to Houthi rebels in Yemen. These sanctions target key figures such as the head of the Currency Exchangers Association in Sana’a, Nabil Al-Hadha, and three exchange houses in Yemen and Turkey. These actions come in response to the Houthi rebels’ targeting of Israel and international shipping lanes since October 7. The measures, blocking access to US property and bank accounts, are part of a broader strategy to curb the illicit flow of funds to the Houthis, who have been conducting dangerous attacks on international shipping, further destabilising the region. The US, along with its allies, emphasises its commitment to targeting facilitation networks supporting the Houthis and their backers in Iran.
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The Council and the European Parliament agreed to a provisional deal on the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDDD), which aims to enhance the protection of the environment and human rights in the EU and globally.
The directive sets obligations for companies to mitigate their negative impact on human rights and the environment such as child labour, slavery, labour exploitation, pollution, deforestation, excessive water consumption or damage to ecosystems. It applies to large EU companies and parent companies with over 500 employees and a worldwide turnover of €150 million. The legislation will also apply to companies with over 250 employees and with a turnover of more than €40 million euro if at least 20 million are generated in certain “high risk” sectors. These actual and potential adverse impacts apply not just across companies’ operations but also up and down their value chains.
Continue reading2023 was yet another exciting year for growth at VinciWorks. With two more leading elearning providers, DeltaNet and EssentialSkillz, being fully merged into our brand, we are now able to offer around three times as many courses, and in multiple formats. We offer video courses, five-minute knowledge checks and in-depth courses that can be adapted to suit specific industries and roles.
Our development team has also been busy. We’ve built an in-browser editor into our courses and will release our “client portal” in 2024 to allow clients to seamlessly manage their staff’s training. We have also added multiple integrations to Omnitrack, software that allows businesses to manage data collection, follow-up, approvals and reporting, all from one centralised portal.
Let’s take a look at our achievements in 2023, before raising a glass to a new year.
This number has almost doubled since last year and includes 3.8 million hours of video streamed. In 2023, we increased our video capabilities, allowing us to produce video courses using professional actors. We also have several courses that include both film and text, such as our new course on artificial intelligence.
Our most popular video courses in 2023:
What makes for a successful law firm? Reputation, delivering for clients, innovation and keeping the regulators on side are perhaps. For self-described ‘legal trailblazer’ Alice Stephenson, known for her tattoos and high profile social media presence, basic competence was not high on the list of priorities for Stephenson Law.
The firm, which previously won Boutique Law Firm of the Year at the British Legal Awards, and was shortlisted for UK Law Firm of the Year in 2021, has entered liquidation with an outstanding debt of £1.5 million, with a £800,000 tax bill owed to HMRC.
Continue readingMore than 30 leading law firms joined VinciWorks’ recent AML Core Group Meeting. The mission of the Core Group is to share best practice in the field of AML compliance to improve policies and procedures for all and to actively manage AML risk.
VinciWorks’ Director of Best Practice Gary Yantin gave an AML news update focussing on the recent announcements from the Scottish Law Society and the SRA. Both regulators have pointed out that the level of AML compliance in law firms under their purview is lower than they would like. The SRA reported that less than a third of firms are compliant with 51% only partially compliant. Issues include deficient Source of Funds checks, poor training records and below-standard Risk Assessments. The SRA recently released their standard templates for client and matter risk assessments.
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The Solicitors Regulation Authority closed down law firm Axiom Ince with immediate effect following its intervention. The firm operated 14 branches in England and Wales and employed over 1400 people. The move involves all of its offices and makes all staff redundant.
The closure follows much speculation over the firm’s ability to operate as its insurance cover had expired. The SRA had suspended the individual practices of directors Pragnesh Modhwadia, Idnan Liaqat and Shyam Mistry in August. In a statement, the SRA said the action had been necessary to protect the interests of clients and former clients of the firm.
In a statement, the SRA said, “An intervention means we have closed a firm with immediate effect. We will stop the firm from operating, take possession of all documents and papers held by the firm, and take possession of all money held by the firm (including clients’ money). We are not responsible towards employees or trade creditors of firms that we have intervened in.”
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