Does the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 go far enough?

Ryder, Nicholas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8712-2946 2022. Does the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 go far enough? Presented at: Unexplained Wealth: A Global Perspective, Online, 29 June 2022.

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Abstract

The conference was opened by Professor Ryder who delivered the keynote speech. In his speech, Professor Ryder examined the UK’s approach to tackling financial crimes as well as the effectiveness of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act [“ECA”] 2022. With regards to the UK’s money laundering and financial crimes regime, he notes that these areas have been significantly strengthened and more robust, as a result of the impacts of legislative reforms since 2007 and more recently with the passage of the ECA 2022 but acknowledged that some issues currently exist with the regime. According to Professor Ryder, the UK does not have a fraud strategy in comparison with its strategy on counterterrorism which has been hailed by the FATF as the best in the world, and question whether but for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ECA would have been introduced. Nevertheless, while describing the ECA as a welcome addition the UK’s armoury of legislations to tackle illicit financial crime as it creates a register of overseas entities containing information on the ownership of properties in the UK by overseas entities and their beneficiaries; the use of unexplained wealth orders; and the introduction of a sanctions regime, he argued that the ECA 2022 does not go far enough. According to him, a lot of the enforcement mechanisms to tackle financial crimes prior to the coming into force of ECA exist but called into question the frequency of their use; blaming the infrequent use of these mechanisms on leadership. He argued that having a clear strategy with clear goals and adequate funding are vital for enforcement of these legislations. In his words “the effectiveness of the legislation will depend on what financial support the government will provide”. This keynote speech laid a solid foundation for the discussions that followed.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item - unpublished
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics Research Institutes & Centres > Cardiff Centre for Crime, Law and Justice (CCLJ)
Related URLs:	https://gsdec.org/9100/unexplained-wealt...
Last Modified:	07 May 2026 10:11
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/156898

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