On 20 March 2025, enforce­ment author­i­ties in the UK, France and Switzerland announced the cre­ation of the International Anti-Corruption Prosecutorial Taskforce. The task­force is com­prised of:

• The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
• France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (Parquet National Financier, or PNF).
• The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG).

In its found­ing state­ment, the task­force declared that the three nation­al agen­cies “stand firm” in their com­mit­ment to tack­ling bribery and cor­rup­tion with­in the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al legal frame­works. Companies falling with­in the remit of these agen­cies’ juris­dic­tions, includ­ing US com­pa­nies oper­at­ing in Europe, should con­tin­ue to main­tain robust anti-cor­rup­tion programmes.

Purpose of the Taskforce

The for­ma­tion of the task­force fol­lows over a decade of close oper­a­tional col­lab­o­ra­tion among the coun­tries. The task­force will deliv­er, amongst oth­er things, a lead­ers’ group focused on the reg­u­lar exchange of insight and strat­e­gy, a work­ing group for the pur­pose of devis­ing pro­pos­als for co-oper­a­tion on cas­es and increased ini­tia­tives for shar­ing best practices.

By com­bin­ing their resources and exper­tise, the expec­ta­tion is that the three coun­tries will be able to more effi­cient­ly tack­le the threats of inter­na­tion­al bribery and cor­rup­tion.¹ This is con­sis­tent with recent state­ments by the PNF and SFO that inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion remains a cen­tral com­po­nent of their enforce­ment poli­cies and will con­tin­ue to increase. (For more on how inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion has been a cor­ner­stone of the PNF’s recent approach, see our 20 February 2025 client alert “Annual Report Highlights France’s Financial Crime Enforcement and International Cooperation.”)

What This Means for Companies Conducting Business in Europe and Beyond

The found­ing of the task­force comes just over a month after President Donald Trump issued an exec­u­tive order on 10 February 2025 direct­ing a pause on enforce­ment under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). (Read our analy­sis.) However, SFO Director Nick Ephgrave has stat­ed that “this task­force is in no way a reac­tion to” the FCPA enforce­ment pause.

While the future of US FCPA enforce­ment remains uncer­tain, the cre­ation of the task­force sig­nals that European author­i­ties will become more involved in lead­ing mul­ti­juris­dic­tion­al bribery and cor­rup­tion cases.

The agen­cies com­pris­ing the task­force could decide to utilise to an even greater extent laws with extrater­ri­to­r­i­al effect that are already part of their nation­al legal frame­works (e.g., the UK’s Bribery Act 2010 and France’s Sapin II law). Other enforce­ment agen­cies may also join the taskforce.

Therefore, it will be par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant for European com­pa­nies — includ­ing those oper­at­ing out­side the UK and European Union, as well as non-European com­pa­nies that con­duct busi­ness in Europe — to stay on top of cor­po­rate gov­er­nance and com­pli­ance practices.

Companies should con­tin­ue to care­ful­ly assess their cur­rent anti-bribery and cor­rup­tion com­pli­ance pro­grammes, includ­ing their risk assess­ments, poli­cies and pro­ce­dures, and train­ing programmes.

____________________

1 See,

• SFO press release of 20 March 2025, “UK, France and Switzerland Announce New Anti-Corruption Alliance,”
• Tribunal de Paris press release of 20 March 2025, “Déclaration Commune Avec le Serious Fraud Office et le Parquet Général de la Confédération Helvétique”
• OAG press release of 20 March 2025, “UK, France and Switzerland Announce New Alliance To Tackle Bribery and Corruption Threat.”

Original source: SCADDEN

Press release
From: Serious Fraud Office
Published20 March 2025

UK, France and Switzerland announce new anti-corruption alliance

UK, France and Switzerland announce new alliance to tack­le bribery and cor­rup­tion threat 

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, France’s Parquet National Financier (PNF) and the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) today affirmed their shared com­mit­ment to tack­ling inter­na­tion­al bribery and cor­rup­tion at an event in London. 

The agen­cies also found­ed a new task­force to strength­en collaboration. 

All three coun­tries have wide-reach­ing anti-bribery leg­is­la­tion with juris­dic­tion to pros­e­cute crim­i­nal con­duct that occurs over­seas, if there is a link to the pros­e­cut­ing country. 

The task­force will strength­en exist­ing ties between these coun­tries and lead to greater joint work­ing on cas­es, as well as shar­ing of insight and expertise. 

The state­ment can be seen here.

Nick Ephgrave, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, said:

The com­mit­ment we have made today reaf­firms our indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to tack­ling the per­ni­cious threat of inter­na­tion­al bribery and cor­rup­tion, wher­ev­er it occurs. 

We will make use of every pow­er and part­ner­ship avail­able to con­front this crim­i­nal­i­ty. This task­force is an impor­tant step for­ward in our approach.

Jean-François Bohnert, Head of the Parquet National Financier, said:

I am delight­ed that ten years of oper­a­tional coop­er­a­tion between the PNF, SFO and OAG are devel­op­ing today into the set­ting up of a pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al taskforce.

This task­force will def­i­nite­ly strength­en our cur­rent coop­er­a­tion in order to fight more effi­cient­ly against bribery and cor­rup­tion in indi­vid­ual cases.

Stefan Blättler, Attorney General of the Swiss Confederation, said:

Within the frame­work of this coop­er­a­tion, we will be able to help ensure that fraud and crime can be bet­ter com­bat­ed in the future.

This task force is of great impor­tance for Switzerland.

Solicitor General Lucy Rigby KC MP said:

I wel­come the SFO’s com­mit­ment to work­ing even more close­ly with their French and Swiss part­ners, includ­ing by set­ting up this new task­force to tack­le inter­na­tion­al bribery and corruption.

Through strong inter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships, we will be able to robust­ly tack­le cross-bor­der eco­nom­ic crime and pro­tect our future prosperity.

Press Office

Email [email protected]

Out of hours press office con­tact num­ber +44 (0)7557 009842

Published 20 March 2025