London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/) advise their clients on the important corporate compliance issue of the UK Bribery Act and the implementation of appropriate anti-bribery policies. In recent months, similar legislation has been passed in several Asian jurisdictions which also seeks to tighten up anti-corruption regulations for multinational organisations.

The recent “Asia Anti-Corruption” report from Hong Kong law firm Herbert Smith reveals that both the UK Bribery Act (UKBA) and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) have been influential in driving anti-corruption reform in Asia, while local anti-corruption regulations are also on the increase in a number of Asian regions.

Kyle Wombolt, Head of Herbert Smith’s Asian Investigations and Compliance Practice in Hong Kong, told ICSA magazine, “The highest profile anti-corruption statutes in the ‘enforcement world’ remain the FCPA and the UKBA, which are foreign anti-bribery statutes that are extra-territorial in nature. While these statutes have been the focus of most of the attention, our report also focuses on the domestic enforcement environment across the different Asian jurisdictions. The reason for the local focus is that, in recent years, we have seen increased attention to the operations of multinational organisations by a number of domestic regulatory and prosecutorial agencies in Asia. Many of these organisations are now paying much more attention to the local regulatory environment”.

This report, which will be released twice a year, is of particular interest to the increasing number of international companies looking to Asia for expansion. While the region is experiencing exponential corporate and commercial growth, corruption is still prevalent in some nations, making it hard for multinational organisations to keep within the law.

To receive advice related to the UK Bribery Act and its effect not only on international markets such as Asia but also on individual businesses within Britain, contact London Registrars through the website at https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/.