Marvin OnumonuOnly 29% of UK organisations have delivered training on the new failure to prevent fraud offence, a VinciWorks poll of 278 compliance professionals found.
The law came in on 1st September and means large companies can be held liable if staff, subsidiaries or agents commit fraud, even if senior leaders do not know about it.
There is no need to prove intent under the law, and the only defence is to show “reasonable procedures” were in place, including documented, job-specific training.
More than 40% of organisations said they had not started training or did not know if it had happened.
A similar gap showed up on failure to prevent tax evasion, with only 29% of companies doing annual training, and over a quarter not training or not planning to.
Over a third (35%) of those surveyed said they still use spreadsheets for anti-money laundering onboarding, while 23% have no formal system at all.
When asked about the main worry with the new law, risk assessment was the most common answer at 25%.
Nick Henderson-Mayo, head of compliance at VinciWorks, said: “This offence wasn’t designed to catch fraudsters. It was designed to catch companies that failed to prevent fraud.
“Organisations need to be doing more than simply having policies on paper or vague intentions to train staff.
“The SFO has made it clear that it expects evidence of risk assessments, due diligence, and internal systems that actually work.”
Henderson-Mayo added: “If you’re still relying on spreadsheets or haven’t documented your fraud training, you may already be exposed.
“Reasonable procedures aren’t about perfection, but they are about proof.
“We’ve seen this before. When failure to prevent bribery was introduced, many thought enforcement would be rare; that was until the Swett Group and Airbus cases landed. Fraud will be no different.”
