The United Kingdom has been recognised as one of the leading jurisdictions in the fight against money laundering by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF), the international independent inter-governmental body overseeing countries’ practices against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The UK was awarded the excellent rating by the FATF in its Mutual Evaluation Report.
The positive assessment followed the UK implementing all 40 of the recommendations previously made by the taskforce.
Investigative priorities
The FATF report found that, on an annual basis, the UK “achieves around 7,900 investigations; 2,000 prosecutions and 1,400 convictions” for money laundering alone or where it is a principal offence.
Similarly, investigations into high-end money laundering have significantly increased since the UK prioritised these types of cases in 2014.
Overall, the report found that “the UK is a global leader in promoting corporate transparency and has a good understanding of the money laundering/terrorist financing risks posed by legal persons and arrangements”.
“The UK has a comprehensive legal framework requiring all financial institutions and all designated non-financial businesses and professions to conduct customer due diligence and obtain and maintain beneficial ownership information in a manner that is generally in line with the FATF requirements.”
National Crime Agency
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which was recognised for the significant role it plays in tackling financial crime, stated that it is not resting on its laurels.
Donald Toon, director of the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre, said: “[The FATF report] shows law enforcement is aggressively pursuing the global fight against illicit finance and the NCA uses the fullest extent of powers to pursue and deny the illicit assets of those that pose the highest harm to the UK.
“We are not complacent and there is always more we can do.”
