Veronica Stratford-Tuke Reacts to the UK Government’s New Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy

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 paper does not by itself keep dirty money out of the UK, and that new structures alone will not make the system more effective. She sets out three blind spots identified by RUSI’s experts.

The first is public-private partnership. Success to date has largely meant banks and law enforcement exchanging information, and she argues that sharing information is different from acting on it. Law enforcement needs deeper relationships with fintech, cryptoasset, legal and accountancy firms, built on value both sides recognise.

The second is resourcing. New money for financial intelligence, the UK Financial Intelligence Unit and asset recovery is welcome, but it comes from annual payments by regulated firms through the Economic Crime Levy, which she says is not a sustainable funding model.

The third is supervisory reform. Bringing anti-money laundering supervision of lawyers, accountants and trust and company service providers under the Financial Conduct Authority in 2028 will not automatically improve prevention and detection, and she calls on the government to define what will make the reform work in practice.

Article Credit: https://www.rusi.org/in-the-news/veronica-stratford-tuke-reacts-uk-governments-new-anti-money-laundering-and-asset