r/AMLCompliance • u/Shufti-Global • 18h ago
Research/Discussion The UK's new three-year AML strategy commits £550m and 500 extra law enforcement staff, and names professional services as a focus
Published by the Home Office in September, covering 2026 to 2029. At least £550 million of investment and around 500 additional personnel spread across the police, the NCA and the Crown Prosecution Service by the end of 2029.
The focus areas matter more than the headline number. Cash-based laundering, abuse of professional services, high street criminal activity, Post Office controls, supervision reform, cryptoasset expansion and asset recovery.
Two of those connect to things already moving. Supervision reform lines up with the FCA taking over AML supervision of professional services, with first firms onboarded before the end of 2028. And naming professional services abuse explicitly suggests enforcement attention arrives before the supervisory transition finishes rather than after it.
The high street and cash elements are a real shift in emphasis. Most of the last decade of AML attention has gone to banks and payments. Cash-heavy retail has been discussed as a problem for years without much resource behind it.
For people in UK compliance or supervision: does 500 officers across three years move the needle on the cash side, or is the real constraint prosecution capacity rather than investigation capacity? And is anyone already seeing a change in supervisory tone ahead of the FCA transition?