Bribery, fraud and anti-money laundering | UK Regulatory Outlook June 2025

Government commits to crackdown on economic crime 

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has received additional funding of more than £8 million over the next three years, as announced in the government's Spending Review. The settlement forms part of the government's Plan for Change, and is in addition to the £9.3 million announced in the Autumn Budget (see more in our previous update), bringing the SFO budget to £98 million per year by 2028/2029.  

The extra funding will be used by the SFO to enhance its proactive intelligence capabilities to identify and progress investigations into complex economic crime. Nicholas Ephgrave QPM, director of the Serious Fraud Office, said: “This settlement will allow us to invest in our intelligence capability, expand our investigative reach and strengthen our ability to recover criminal assets, including crypto assets, wherever they may be.” 

European Commission updates list of high-risk countries under MLD4 

The European Commission adopted delegated regulation (EU) 2016/1675, amending the list of high-risk third countries with strategic anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) deficiencies under directive (EU) 2015/849, also known as the Fourth Money Laundering Directive (MLD4). 

The delegated regulation makes the following amendments: 

• removing Barbados, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Panama, the Philippines, Senegal, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates; and
• adding Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal and Venezuela. 

The entities covered by the AML/CFT framework are required to apply enhanced vigilance (such as enhanced customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring) in transactions involving those countries. 

Under Article 9(2) of MLD4, the Commission is obligated to regularly review and update the list of high‑risk third‑country jurisdictions (see our previous update for more information). The delegated will now be scrutinised by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. It will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the EU.