Beyond Integrity: Thinking Twice About Financial Crime Risk

23 Apr 2026 11:51 AM

The UK, when presiding over the Financial Action Task Force, should update the mandate to focus on reducing criminal activity.

Elisa de Anda Madrazo, current president of the FATF, with VP Giles Thomson, who will take over the presidency on behalf of the UK in July, at a Learning and Development Forum in London.

This summer the UK will host a major international summit to tackle the flows of dirty money around the world, which are making streets in the UK – and of those countries that attend – less safe. The Foreign Secretary has called out illicit finance as the ‘lifeblood of crime’ and promises to ‘take the fight to the corrupt’.

The Summit will focus on strengthening global enforcement efforts to prevent, disrupt and recover dirty money and brings a welcome focus on interdiction and defensive action to act as a meaningful deterrent. This event, along with the appointment of a UK President of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) for a two-year term from July, presents a unique opportunity to refocus the global financial system towards a strategy of harm reduction and away from an integrity-based compliance regime that has proven ineffective.

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