Paris, 1 July 2026 – The United Kingdom today takes over the Presidency of the global illicit finance watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), committing to focus international efforts on collaboration and partnerships to fight crime and combat the global fraud epidemic.
The new FATF President, Giles Thomson, has set out to strengthen the FATF’s efforts to tackle the financial flows that fuel crime, terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and to support safer, more resilient and more inclusive economies.
With nearly 90% of assessments in the FATF’s previous round of mutual evaluations identifying fraud as a major proceeds-generating offence, the UK Presidency will work to strengthen the global use of the FATF toolkit, which provides countries with measures to combat fraud, including freezing and seizing assets, suspending fraudulent transactions, and enhancing cross-border intelligence sharing.
On the first day of the UK Presidency, the FATF is bringing together key partners and stakeholders to officially launch its 2026-2028 Roadmap on Combatting Fraud.
Fraud is identified as the most significant and rapidly growing source of illicit finance globally, increasingly enabled by digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual assets and online platforms, and driven by transnational organised criminal groups operating at scale.
With an estimated nearly USD 500 billion lost to scams in 2024-2025, the FATF will also examine the financial flows around scam compounds and transnational criminal organisations committing fraud.
FATF President Giles Thomson said: “Fraudsters and other criminals are scaling at speed by exploiting technological innovations, often targeting the most vulnerable in society, with severe and often life-threatening consequences. To keep our citizens safe around the world and protect economic growth, we need to match their pace with a united front across sectors and borders.”
Under the UK Presidency, the FATF will also focus on strengthening implementation of the risk-based approach to fighting financial crime and risk-based supervision, so that authorities, supervisors and private-sector actors target resources to the areas of greatest risk and reduce activity where risks are lower.
And the FATF will work to enhance public-private, cross-border and private-to-private information sharing, to help countries keep pace with the speed at which illicit finance moves across institutions and borders.
The UK Presidency objectives will deliver on the FATF’s Strategic Priorities for 2026-2028, as agreed by FATF Ministers in April 2026, with a focus on the successful delivery of the new round of evaluations against FATF standards that hold countries to account and drive tangible reforms in assessed countries.
In line with these priorities, the FATF will also continue to enhance cooperation with FATF-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs), reinforcing an inclusive and coordinated Global Network able to respond to illicit finance threats.
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