New Government Strategy for Tackling Money Laundering
The UK Government has published its Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy 2026 to 2029. Its aim is simple - to make it harder for criminals to hide and use money gained from crimes committed.
The government is investing £550 million in the strategy over the next three years. It is built around three key objectives: -
Target - focus efforts where the risk is highest, rather than on low-risk activity.
Integrate - help government organisations share information more effectively.
Empower - give those dealing with law enforcement better tools, skills and powers.
Update to Anti-Money Laundering Regulations
Article written by David Smith - 17th June 2026
The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2026 were made on 9 June. These come into effect automatically 21 days after they were made, so will be in effect as from 30 June.
I wrote briefly about the draft regulations here when they were made available.
By far and away the most crucial and immediate change is that the €10,000 pcm rent threshold for compulsory AML checks for higher value tenancies changes to £10,000. This is quite a change as €10,000 is closer to £8,650 so there is quite a big jump here. This is also quite a key number as there are a fair few rental properties in the higher-end sector that would be picked up by a threshold at £8,500 but not by a threshold at £10,000 so I would anticipate that this will take a reasonable chunk of property out of AML controls and will give agents a lot more flexibility in this area.