Companies Act 2006 – Issues for Financial Institutions

Authors: Kate Gibbons, Karen Lester and Susan Mitchell

The Companies Act 2006 received Royal Assent on 8 November 2006. The Act has been eight years in the making and is a major reform of UK company law, regularly referred to in Parliament as the longest bill on record. While much of the weight of the Act is due to the consolidation of previous law, there are a number of significant changes. Many of these changes will affect banking and finance transactions only to the extent that they change company procedures (for example, corporate authorisations), but there are some provisions which will have a more direct impact on finance transactions.