RELEASE: UKACC members welcome new anti-money laundering powers for regulator to crack down on enablers of crooks and kleptocrats.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
These promising changes must be backed up with sustainable funding and appropriate powers to ensure a smooth and effective transition, the coalition warned.
Tuesday 21 October 2025 — The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition has welcomed today’s Treasury announcement that the anti-money laundering supervision of lawyers, accountants and company formation agents will pass to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
This change promises more consistent levels of oversight and enforcement across sectors vulnerable to money laundering and strengthened cooperation with law enforcement agencies. Now the task remains to equip the FCA with the tools, funding, and resources needed to ensure that it can truly shut down dirty money flows through our financial and professional services sectors.
Phil Brickell MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax, said:
“Today’s announcement by the Treasury to consolidate Anti-Money Laundering supervision is a very welcome development. For far too long crooks and kleptocrats looking to launder their ill-gotten gains have exploited weaknesses across our regulated sectors, dragging the reputation of our world-leading financial and professional services through the mud in the process.
“Firms are having to spend billions of pounds on compliance measures, so streamlining and simplifying their supervisory system should help unlock the growth our economy desperately needs. Now it’s time to get on with making sure the new supervisory regime has the teeth to provide a credible deterrent, including ensuring it is adequately resourced to do so.”
Dr Sue Hawley, Executive Director of Spotlight on Corruption and Co-Chair of the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, said:
“This bold decision to make the FCA a super-regulator for money laundering is really welcome. The FCA’s relatively strong capacity, expertise and appetite to take enforcement action has the potential to shake up the legal and accountancy sectors who are used to seeing their supervisors go easy on them.
“However, this will only work if it is sustainably funded, with reinvestment of money laundering fines back into supervisory capacity, and draws in existing sector-specific expertise. And it is crucial that existing regulators do not take their foot off the pedal while we await legislation which could risk things getting a lot worse before getting better. It’s crucial that HMT fast track the development of legislation to kickstart this transition process.”
Steve Goodrich, Head of Research and Investigations, Transparency International UK, said:
“These reforms are long overdue and present a welcome step towards fixing the UK’s broken system for tackling illicit finance.
“For too long, fragmented and ineffective oversight of lawyers, accountants and company formation agents have enabled kleptocrats, oligarchs and criminals to launder and stash their dirty money here – contributing to Britain's £100 billion-a-year money laundering problem. Rationalising the current patchwork of regulators into one properly resourced organisation has the potential to provide a step-change in the UK’s efforts to tackle dirty money.”
Background:
The current system of 22 different professional body supervisors was in urgent need of an overhaul. It provides an uncoordinated, ineffective response to tackling ‘professional enablers’ unwittingly or knowingly contributing to the UK’s £100 billion a year money laundering problem.
Poor private sector oversight has allowed rogue company formation agents to facilitate industrial-scale money laundering, which damaged the UK's reputation as a clean and trusted place to do business.
The Financial Conduct Authority is to take over responsibility from 22 different professional bodies for supervising lawyers and accountants. It will also take over responsibility from HMRC for supervising company formation agents for money laundering.
The new framework is expected to simplify compliance for more than 60,000 firms while strengthening enforcement coordination and information sharing between regulators and law enforcement.
The APPG’s Clean Foundations for Growth report identified that economic crime costs the UK up to £350 billion a year – equivalent to the combined health and education budgets – and that 64% of UK businesses experience some form of economic crime.
Regulated firms collectively spend over £21,000 per hour combating financial crime, with Know Your Customer (KYC) obligations accounting for more than half of compliance costs in some institutions.