AFB Seminar: Corporate Liability – Developments in Attribution Following the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023

Alongside the introduction of the “failure to prevent fraud” offence in the Economic Crime and Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA), there is also a significant provision on corporate liability, which has been overlooked. There has been a rewiring of attribution under section 196 ECCTA, marking an important shift in corporate criminal liability by creating a statutory route to attribute criminal liability to a firm where a senior manager, acting within their actual or apparent authority, commits a listed economic crime. In practice, this means a business can be convicted of an offence based on a senior manager’s conduct, even where the individual was acting for personal gain or against the interests of the company. 

In addition, the Crime and Policing Bill 2025 takes that attribution principle beyond economic crimes to all offences such as non-financial misconduct, health and safety and data/cyber breaches, and even violent crime and sexual assaults in the workplace. 

AFB, in partnership with Michelman & Robinson, invites members to attend an in-person seminar that will consider and review existing frameworks and the incoming changes, as well as what these developments mean in practice.

With thanks to Commerzbank for hosting.

Why attend?

Under the ‘failure to prevent’ model, a company can argue that it had adequate procedures in place. This new law provides no such safety net. Compliance teams will find it more difficult to mitigate their organisations from liability if a senior manager commits an offence within their apparent authority.

The session will assist banks in reducing exposure, and  will focus on the actions banks can take to mitigate the risk, including mapping who counts as a senior manager by function rather than title (as it is a much wider definition than SMCR), stress-testing apparent/actual authority scenarios (client entertainment, operational sign-offs, AML escalations, data use); and how to embed behavioural expectations and decision-making guardrails.

Who should attend?

This session is aimed at member representatives from Compliance, Risk and Legal teams.

Speaker

Ruth Paley, Partner – Michelman & Robinson

Ruth Paley is a partner in the London office of Michelman Robinson, a global law firm headquartered in the US. A member of MR’s Corporate Crime & Investigations Practice Group, her practice focuses on internal investigations and enforcement strategy. Ruth is a former FCA Financial Crime Skilled Person, described by Legal 500 as ‘a leading name in anti-money laundering work in London, with a depth of knowledge few in the City have’. For full biography, please see here.

Logistics

Fee:                Included in AFB membership

Location:        Commerzbank, 30 Gresham St, London EC2V 7PG 

Date:               Wednesday 4 February 2026

Time:              09:00 – 10:30 (arrivals & breakfast from 8:30)

To submit a question for the session, please email AFB at secretariat@foreignbanks.org.uk. You will receive details on how to join this in-person session a week before the event.