ECCTA starts to take effect

The first commencement order under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 brings into force on 15 January 2024 several parts of the Act, including the provisions on:

• the change to POCA to create exemptions from money laundering offences where regulated businesses deal only with part of a client’s property;
• amendments to SAMLA to allow regulations on EDD to be made referencing directly the FATF high risk countries list
• the list of “economic crime offences”.

The provisions on enforcement of sanctions monetary penalties came fully into force on 15 November.

The provisions reforming the identification doctrine for economic crime offences will take effect from 26 December 2023.