Bribery, fraud and anti-money laundering | UK Regulatory Outlook April 2026

SFO publishes Business Plan 2026 – 2027  

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has published its business plan for 2026 – 2027, setting out its priorities including investment into intelligence and technology to aid its investigations, and strengthening international partnerships to share best practice in tackling complex fraud, bribery and corruption. 

2026 to 2027 marks the midway point of the SFO's five-year strategy which will see the organisation enter a period of significant change. The foreword begins by congratulating SFO director Nick Ephgrave on his retirement, which was announced in January 2026. Graham McNulty QPM was appointed as interim director pending a formal recruitment process. 

The business plan signals a shift towards greater operational momentum, underpinned by £8.3 million of additional funding secured at the last Spending Review, with a commitment to earlier intervention through enhanced intelligence capabilities. In particular, the office will explore automation, artificial intelligence and big data to transform the SFO's approach to intelligence analysis, including proactive identification of suspects and suspicious activity. 

On the threat landscape, the SFO acknowledged that criminal actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated, aided by the availability and capability of AI tools, while cryptoassets, which require no specialist knowledge of money laundering techniques, allow the proceeds of crime to be concealed rapidly and across borders. 

Among the key operational objectives for the year, the SFO will look to deliver its corporate prevention programme to equip businesses with the tools and incentives to guard against bribery and corruption, develop its cryptoasset investigation capabilities, and implement the 2026 Disclosure Improvement Plan. The SFO will also host the International Anti-Corruption Prosecutorial Taskforce Economic Crime Conference and respond to the Financial Action Task Force's inspection of the UK. 

The financial year will conclude with the SFO relocating to new offices in Canary Wharf, where it will be co-located with a number of its regulatory partners. Organisations should expect a more assertive and intelligence-led SFO as these plans are put into effect.  

Draft Money Laundering Regulations 2026 laid before Parliament  

The draft Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2026 were laid before Parliament, proposing amendments to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs). 

The amendments implement the government's response to its 2024 consultation on improving the effectiveness of the MLRs, which require businesses to identify and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. Among other things, the draft proposes: 

• Amendments to refine customer due diligence (CDD), enhanced due diligence (EDD) and additional due diligence (ADD) requirements in relation to cryptoasset businesses, unusually complex or large transactions, high-risk jurisdictions and pooled client accounts.
• Strengthening of the anti-money laundering regime for cryptoasset businesses, aligning the MLRs with the new financial services regulatory framework for cryptoassets.
• New provisions relating to insolvent bank customers, permitting credit institutions, in limited circumstances, to establish a business relationship before completion of full CDD. 

The draft regulations also propose technical amendments, including replacing references to euros with sterling throughout the MLRs and updating the definition of "high-risk third country". 

The amendments are subject to approval by both Houses of Parliament, following which they will come into force 21 days after the day on which the regulations are made. 

See also the draft explanatory memorandum.