India’s DPDP Act is a UK compliance issue

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, notified in November 2025, has moved into implementation, with different parts of the rules coming into force on different dates. For organisations with operations, suppliers, teams or customers connected to India, this has become a practical compliance issue. For UK organisations, this is not simply a question of what […]

ScoMo’s failed appeal against the SRA’s £68k AML fine highlights the cost of weak compliance

A recent decision in the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has upheld a £68,000 penalty for a law firm’s anti‑money laundering failures, rejecting the firm’s appeal against the fine imposed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Scott‑Moncrieff & Associates (ScoMo), a fee‑share law firm, argued that the penalty was excessive, but the Tribunal found that the regulator’s […]

Apple sanctions penalty shows how UK exposure can arise where firms least expect it

On 19 March 2026, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, or OFSI, imposed a monetary penalty of £390,000 on Apple Distribution International Limited, an Irish subsidiary of Apple. The penalty related to two payments in 2022, worth £635,618.75 in total, made to Okko LLC, a Russian streaming service that at the time was wholly owned […]

Transparency in the British Overseas Territories: eight years on, where are the public registers?

Nearly eight years after the UK’s offshore financial centres committed to greater beneficial ownership transparency, the picture is still deeply uneven. The UK continues to say it expects all Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to move to public registers of beneficial ownership, yet in practice many jurisdictions are still relying on narrower “legitimate interest” access […]

Halkbank settlement shines spotlight on Iran sanctions risk

The US Department of Justice has reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Turkish state-owned lender Halkbank, potentially bringing to an end one of the most politically sensitive sanctions cases of recent years. The agreement follows allegations that Halkbank helped Iran evade US sanctions through fraud, money laundering and deceptive transaction structures. Under the deal, Halkbank […]

UK hits Russia with largest sanctions package yet on war anniversary

On the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK has introduced its largest-ever sanctions package, targeting nearly 300 entities linked to Russia’s energy and military supply chains. The government has described the new measures as the most extensive since the war began, aimed at choking off Russia’s key revenue sources and degrading its […]

Swedbank faces new Swedish AML probe focused on customer due diligence

Sweden’s financial regulator, the Financial Supervisory Authority (commonly referred to as Finansinspektionen, FI), has opened a new investigation into Swedbank to assess whether the bank met Sweden’s anti-money laundering customer due diligence (CDD) and customer knowledge requirements. The review covers 1 December 2023 to 30 November 2025 and will examine the bank’s CDD measures under […]

OFSI is tightening sanctions enforcement: what’s changing and how to prepare

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation published its consultation response on reforming its enforcement processes, confirming it intends to proceed with all the proposals from the original consultation (with adjustments based on feedback). For UK businesses, the direction of travel is clear: more structured enforcement decisions, more formal resolution routes, and a recalibration of incentives […]

New 2026 enforcement outlook signals tougher expectations for corporate compliance

Enforcement risk is expanding, not narrowing. That is the headline message from Hogan Lovells’ Global Bribery, Investigations and Enforcement Outlook 2026, which deliberately broadens the frame beyond bribery into the wider set of risks now travelling together: sanctions and trade controls, fraud, data privacy, ESG, supply chain due diligence, and technology-driven investigations. What used to […]