As we welcome 2025, the year ahead promises to be a year of change. After more than 70 national elections in 2024, the dust hasn’t fully settled, not least in the United States, where President Trump has taken office for the second time. Nevertheless, recent political shifts across the world – coupled with geopolitical uncertainty – set the tone for 2025 in terms of the regulatory and legislative changes that will surely follow.
In the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia, governments are taking aggressive stances on corruption. Many countries have increased their domestic enforcement, even setting examples by tackling corruption within government as a priority.
Mexico, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, to name a few, have ramped up measures to clamp down on government officials involved in corruption. Other countries such as the United States continue to embrace artificial intelligence and digital tools while expanding their laws to tackle cross-border corporate crime.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Saudi Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority have set about creating frameworks to encourage insiders to blow the whistle on potential crimes in exchange for monetary rewards. The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is exploring the same idea – realistically, though, nothing will change in the United Kingdom any time soon. But the SFO, like DOJ, has the scope to offer reduced sentences or immunity from prosecution in exchange for full cooperation. This in itself brings forward information. In other words, enforcers are drawing on every tool at their disposal to root out corruption.
With this in mind, you should prepare for a rise in enforcement actions. This is exacerbated by the geopolitical uncertainty and conflict around the world, which provide fertile ground for corruption and fraud. But a robust compliance program can help mitigate these risks and can often help you catch misconduct before enforcers do.
In this Outlook, our lawyers walk you through some of the measures governments are taking to address bribery and corruption, and we guide you on what to expect. We also delve into related issues in several sectors: energy, life sciences, sports, and financial services.
For anything more, we’re here to help.
Please click here to access the Global Bribery and Corruption Outlook 2025 site.
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