Key themes include:
➡️ Sharper financial-crime supervision: HM Treasury increased its financial-crime interventions, and expanded intelligence-led supervision to target fraud, money laundering and sanctions risks across high-risk sectors;
➡️ Crypto & AML oversight strengthened: More cryptoasset firms were refused, restricted or removed from the market where they failed to meet AML standards;
➡️ Gambling sector AML failings persist: Recent supervisory work shows around 40% of gambling operators are still failing basic AML requirements, highlighting weak customer due-diligence controls;
➡️ Testing AI safely with firms: The FCA launched new artificial intelligence (AI) testing environments to help firms deploy AI safely, evaluate risks, and build governance aligned with regulatory expectations;
➡️ AI heightens ID&V risks: Growing challenges are emerging from AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic identities, which are increasingly capable of bypassing traditional Identity and Verification (ID&V) controls; and
➡️ Tackling online fraud at source: Expanded partnerships with tech platforms led to more takedowns of illegal online promotions and unauthorised financial content, reinforcing the FCA’s focus on upstream fraud prevention.
️✅ Firms should continue strengthening financial-crime controls, reviewing AI governance frameworks, and preparing for heightened supervisory expectations on data-driven risk management.