Release: UKACC welcomes first Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy (AMLAR), but gaps remain

15 September 2026 – The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition (UKACC) strongly welcomes the government’s first Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy. This is a crucial moment for the UK to show it is serious about tackling dirty money, recovering criminal assets and ensuring accountability for those professionals that help facilitate dirty money to move through the UK’s financial system.

Dr Sue Hawley, Co-Chair of the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition and Executive Director at Spotlight on Corruption, said:

“For too long, dirty money has been allowed to move through the UK while too few criminal assets have been recovered and too few of the professionals who enable it have faced meaningful consequences.

This strategy is a crucial opportunity to change that. It contains important commitments, but the real test will be delivery: whether law enforcement has the resources and specialist staff it needs, whether clear timelines and public accountability are put in place, and whether these reforms result in substantially more criminal assets being seized.”

In particular, we strongly welcome the commitments to:

1. Overhaul of Anti-Money Laundering Supervision
   The commitment to overhaul anti-money laundering supervision will see the Financial Conduct Authority become the super-regulator. 

   For too long, lawyers and accountants have been subject to fragmented supervision that has left serious vulnerabilities in the UK’s defences against dirty money. Today’s commitment to deliver this reform over the next three years is a crucial step forward. 

2. Review who is subject to the UK’s anti-money laundering rules and reputation-laundering.
    The government must work at pace to bring forward this consultation on whether property developers, high value dealers, football and other high risk sectors should be subject to anti-money laundering rules. 

   The government must also ensure that its proposed ‘reputation laundering’ charter provides a route to an effective crack down on unethical conduct by PR firms.

3. Ramp up the seizure of criminal assets
   The strategy commits the government to look again at asset recovery legislation and increase resources for law enforcement. 

   Resourcing and prioritising asset recovery works: the latest asset recovery statistics show that investment is paying off and more assets are being recovered. But this remains far short of what is needed to make a dent in the scale of the problem. 

   Without serious measures to ringfence economic crime funding and retain and recruit specialist staff, delivery of these commitments will be hampered. The government must prioritise further asset recovery legislation and its review of why prosecutions for complex money laundering remain so low. 

4. Take administrative action against professional enablers

   Successive governments have talked tough on professional enabling but have stopped short of delivering meaningful changes in ensuring those who enable dirty money face real consequences. 

   We look forward to seeing the detailed plans to see if they will deliver that accountability.

The strategy must go further.

UKACC is also urging the government to strengthen the strategy in four important areas:

1. Develop meaningful public accountability for delivery   
   Proper transparency and engagement with civil society stakeholders from the beginning are essential to ensure there is robust public oversight in delivery. Concrete timelines for delivering key aspects of the plan must also be developed.

2. Develop a long-term sustainable funding solution
   Too much of the strategy is dependent on funds raised from the private sector through the Economic Crime Levy, without a plan to reinvest more of the assets recovered back into law enforcement and returned to victims. 

   Without a credible plan for greater public-sector investment in law enforcement, the whole landscape will remain too dependent on one funding mechanism.

3. Protect and strengthen the Financial Intelligence Unit as a public resource
   It is essential that, as it develops the National Financial Intelligence Service, the government protects the Financial Intelligence Unit as a core public law-enforcement function that meets FATF criteria and is free from government or industry influence. 

4. Ensure reducing ‘low-value’ compliance does not stray into deregulation
   While it is welcome that the government is tackling tick-box compliance, it must ensure that the focus on reducing ‘low-value’ compliance does not create new vulnerabilities or become a code-word for deregulation. 

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition brings together leading civil society organisations working to reduce corruption in the UK and the UK’s role in facilitating corruption overseas.