UK Launches Three-Year Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy

The UK Government has launched a three-year Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy covering the period from 2026 to 2029, setting out measures to strengthen the detection, disruption and prosecution of money laundering and increase the recovery of criminal assets.

The strategy, published on 15 September 2026, is backed by more than £550 million of investment over three years and is expected to result in the recruitment of 500 additional law enforcement officers and specialists by the end of 2029. The additional resources will be deployed across policing, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Crown Prosecution Service, with a focus on financial investigations, asset recovery, forensic accounting and cryptoasset capabilities.

The strategy establishes three principal objectives: strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of the UK's anti-money laundering defences; disrupting money laundering and dismantling high-harm criminal networks in the UK and overseas; and recovering more criminal assets for law enforcement, victims and the public.

The government has identified a range of money laundering risks in the strategy, including cash-based laundering, criminal activity conducted through businesses, the abuse of professional and financial services, complex corporate structures, cryptoassets and emerging technologies. The measures are intended to increase the focus on activities and networks considered to represent the highest levels of harm.

Asset recovery is a central component of the strategy. The government intends to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to identify, restrain, seize and recover assets connected with criminal activity. The strategy includes plans to establish a National Crime Agency Asset Recovery Office and expand the Asset Management Office so that it can support agencies using powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The government has also published figures covering the year-long period preceding the strategy. Almost £350 million in criminal assets was recovered or otherwise stripped from criminals, while more than £1 billion in criminal assets was denied. Authorities reported approximately 2,700 illicit finance operations being disrupted, while money laundering convictions increased to almost 4,000. Approximately £26 million was returned to victims.

The strategy places increased emphasis on the use and integration of financial intelligence. A new National Financial Intelligence Service is planned within the NCA's National Economic Crime Centre. The service is intended to bring together public- and private-sector intelligence to identify criminal networks at an earlier stage and support disruption and asset recovery.

The UK Financial Intelligence Unit will also be strengthened. Planned measures include development of a new Suspicious Activity Reports Digital Service and improvements to the way financial intelligence is accessed and used across policing. The strategy also provides for greater cooperation between government, law enforcement and private-sector organisations.

The government plans to pilot a multinational public-private information-sharing partnership and increase international cooperation in tracing, restraining and recovering assets held outside the UK. The strategy identifies international cooperation as part of the response to criminal networks whose activities and assets extend across multiple jurisdictions.

Professional money laundering networks and individuals who facilitate money laundering are another focus of the strategy. The government intends to increase investment in financial investigators, forensic accountants and specialists dealing with cryptoassets. The strategy also identifies the need for stronger action against professional enablers and networks that provide laundering services to organised crime groups.

The NCA's 2026 assessment of serious and organised crime finance states that organised crime groups continue to outsource money laundering to specialist networks. These networks can provide access to financial infrastructure, facilitate movement of funds and create distance between criminal groups and the proceeds of their underlying offences.

The NCA has also identified continued activity by Russian-speaking money laundering networks. According to its 2026 assessment, these networks provide services to a range of organised crime groups, Russian elites and hostile state-linked entities. The assessment describes the use of overseas transactions, cash collection and conversion of criminal cash into cryptocurrency, including through access to sanctioned cryptocurrency exchanges.

Operation DESTABILISE, led by the NCA since 2022, has been used to investigate Russian-speaking professional money laundering networks affecting the UK. The NCA reports that the operation has resulted in 129 arrests and more than £25 million in cash and cryptocurrency being seized in the UK, in addition to seizures made overseas. The investigation has also identified links between money laundering networks and Russian intelligence-related activity.

The strategy also addresses money laundering conducted through legitimate-looking businesses. The government intends to increase enforcement against criminal fronts and strengthen controls relating to cash deposits at Post Office locations. The strategy identifies cash-intensive businesses and criminal activity operating through the high street as areas requiring increased attention.

Changes to anti-money laundering supervision are also planned. The government intends to make supervision more consistent, intelligence-led and focused on outcomes. It will also consult on changes intended to reduce low-value compliance and reporting activity, with the stated objective of concentrating resources on areas presenting higher levels of risk.

The supervision of certain professional sectors is also expected to change. The government has been preparing reforms affecting anti-money laundering supervision of lawyers, accountants and trust and company service providers. Under the wider reform programme, responsibility for AML supervision of these sectors is expected to be consolidated under the Financial Conduct Authority in 2028.

The strategy follows the government's assessment that the UK's financial system continues to face significant exposure to illicit finance. The NCA has stated that the UK remains an attractive location for laundering proceeds generated both domestically and overseas, while technological and professional enablers continue to play an important role in serious and organised crime finance.

Corporate structures, UK property and other assets are among the areas identified by the NCA as being used in connection with illicit finance. Its 2026 assessment states that criminals continue to use UK corporate structures for fraud and other illicit financial activity, while UK property remains attractive because of the value that can be transferred and the relative stability of property as an asset.

The government has also reported progress in relation to corporate transparency. More than 33,000 entities were registered on the Register of Overseas Entities, while more than 106,000 addresses were removed from the Companies House register where personal data had been used without consent by the end of the 2025–26 financial year.

Official figures for asset recovery cover the restraint, seizure and freezing of proceeds of crime, as well as subsequent recovery and receipt of those assets. The statistics also cover compensation paid to victims, distributions to agencies through the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme and international asset recovery.

The strategy forms part of a wider UK economic crime programme that also includes the government's anti-corruption and fraud strategies. Its implementation will run through 2029, with additional personnel, financial intelligence capabilities, asset recovery resources and supervisory reforms introduced during the three-year period.

By fLEXI tEAM