MLRs 2017

  • FCA Money Mule Review: Look Beyond the First Receiving Account

    The FCA money mule review published on 23 September 2026, “Money mules: mule activity and cashing out findings”, reports that the 35 retail banks, building societies, challenger banks, payment institutions (PIs) and e-money institutions (EMIs) it surveyed offboarded 238,396 suspected money mules in 2025, up from 184,935 in 2023 and 233,269 in 2024. Its sharper…

  • FCA Annex 1 Firms: Tougher AML Scrutiny From August 2026

    On 7 August 2026 the FCA published a statement confirming that it is applying increased scrutiny to Annex 1 firms, including unregulated lenders, safe custody providers, money brokers and financial leasing companies registered with it for anti-money laundering purposes. Alongside the statement, the regulator said it had sent an information request to around 900 Annex…

  • FCA censures CACEIS UK over WealthTek: a financial crime controls reckoning for UK custodians

    A custodian opened accounts for another FCA-authorised firm, checked the Financial Services Register on multiple occasions, saw each time that the firm lacked the permission it needed to hold those assets, and carried on anyway. Over two and a half years more than GBP 314 million flowed through those accounts while transaction-monitoring alerts sat unresolved….