Month: October 2026

UK financial firms shut 238,396 accounts suspected of being used by money mules during 2025, according to survey data released by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The total has risen every year, from 184,935 closures in 2023 and 233,269 in 2024. The regulator cautions that part of the increase may reflect growing customer numbers and better detection, but says the figures still show how deeply mule activity is embedded in the banking system. Customers aged 26 to 39 accounted for the largest share of closures at 91,073, with those aged 25 and under close behind at 85,425. The fastest growth…

The UK government has presented its Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy 2026-2029 as a turning point in the fight against illicit finance. Published on 15 September, the 101-page strategy carries a foreword from security minister Dan Jarvis and economic secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby, who say they want the UK to be a hostile environment for dirty money. The National Crime Agency (NCA) puts the amount laundered through the UK or UK corporate structures at more than £100bn a year. At least £550m backs the plan: £520m from the Economic Crime Levy paid by firms supervised under the…

Five hundred new officers to be recruited in a £500 million crackdown on money laundering, as part of the government’s Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy. Hundreds of new officers will be recruited to track dirty money, disrupt organised crime networks and seize criminal assets under a major new crackdown. New officers will be deployed across police forces, the NCA and the CPS to follow the money behind serious and organised crime, including through Russian and other international money laundering networks. The new investigators will focus on going after the kingpins behind Britain’s dirty money trade. By blocking and seizing…

Veronica Stratford-Tuke, a Research Fellow in the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI, has given a qualified welcome to the UK government’s Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy for 2026 to 2029. She notes the National Crime Agency’s long-standing estimate that more than £100 billion is laundered through or within the UK every year, activity she ties to organised criminals, sanctions evaders and hostile states. She is positive about the strategy’s ambition for law enforcement and the private sector to concentrate together on the most harmful laundering and move away from box-ticking. Her warning is that stronger policy on…

Research by academics at Cardiff University and the University of the West of England (UWE) has found that most people arrested for money laundering in England and Wales are under 30. Freedom of Information responses from 36 police forces show 8,956 adults under 30 were arrested for offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 between January 2020 and January 2025, out of 14,493 recorded arrests across all ages. Those arrests led to 7,735 charges. Offending is most common among 18 to 29 year olds, and Ministry of Justice figures for the same period show 108 children and 420 young…

AUSTRAC, Australia’s financial intelligence agency and anti-money laundering regulator, has opened an investigation into Western Union Financial Services Australia and its US-based parent company. The inquiry concerns how the companies manage money laundering and terrorism financing risk, covering their anti-money laundering programme, transaction monitoring and governance. It will also test whether their systems can detect known laundering methods and suspicious transactions linked to child sexual exploitation and terrorism financing. The investigation follows earlier engagement with the regulator and an external audit ordered in 2025. Western Union runs one of the world’s largest international money transfer networks, including cash-based cross-border payments,…