Syed Rahman of Rahman Ravelli details the National Crime Agency and Financial Conduct Authority’s nine-point priority list
The National Crime Agency (NCA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have published nine economic crime priorities for the UK’s regulated sector.
The priorities were made public in the NCA document “System Priorities – 2025’’, which emphasises that tackling economic crime “is a collaborative effort and partnership with the private sector is essential to prevent, identify and disrupt the financing of organised crime.’’
The document explains that the nine priorities have been agreed under a commitment made in the Economic Crime Plan 2, and with the NCA and FCA working in partnership with the Home Office and Treasury. The priorities are aligned to both the National Risk Assessment (NRA) and NCA National Strategic Assessment (NSA) and are intended to support the regulated sector in allocating resources to where they can have the most impact on tackling the threat of economic crime.
The priorities
Each priority is defined in the document and is accompanied by a set of suggested actions and links to further information. Governance of these priorities will be the duty of the newly-created public-private System Prioritisation Governance Group (SPGG).
The priorities (which have no order of ranking) are:
- Economic crime and sanctions evasion facilitated by UK-based or UK-registered professional enablers, particularly evasion of sanctions linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- Transaction flows and corporate structures associated with the abuse of power by overseas Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs).
- Protecting the public by creating a cryptoasset ecosystem that is increasingly resilient to criminal abuse.
- Criminal cash consolidation – its cross-border movement and depositing into the UK banking system (including via the Post Office).
- Money laundering in the UK or through UK corporate structures on behalf of organised crime groups (OCGs) with links to priority jurisdictions, including Albania, China, Russia, and the UAE. This includes the activity of international controller networks and underground banking.
- Fraud perpetrated by international offenders against victims in the UK, including by OCGs with links to criminality in priority jurisdictions, including Ghana, Nigeria, India and Southeast Asia (with a focus on Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar).
- The exploitation of money mules by mule herders running networks to disguise the origin, movement and cashing out of the proceeds of crime.
- Tackling the significant percentage of the value of frauds in the UK which originate from a telecommunications service or online platforms.
- The financing of terrorist attacks or plots in the UK, or individuals or groups engaged in attack planning or propagating terrorist ideology.
Step forward
With the NCA estimating that over £100 billion is laundered through or within the UK each year, the agency believes publication of the document marks a significant step forward in aligning public and private sector efforts to tackle financial crime and terrorist financing threats.
Rachael Herbert, Director of the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), said:
“The NECC views public private partnership as being at the heart of what we do, and we know that mutual benefit is key to making those partnerships effective. System prioritisation is designed to drive benefits for law enforcement, government and the UK regulated sector.”
Steve Smart, executive director and lead for fighting financial crime at the FCA, added:
“A single set of UK-wide priorities gives firms, and the wider system, helpful clarity. The FCA is committed to working with partners across the public and private sectors to ensure resources are directed where they’re most needed to protect people, markets and the wider financial system.”
