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Is enough being done to tackle financial crime?

Journalist: Hereward Mills, FT Adviser

ended 14. May 2026

In a speech today, the FCA’s chief executive Nikhil Rathi has said it is impossible to “chase every single lead” in the fight against financial crime.

Rathi said the government needed “to be clear about where financial crime sits in relation to growth, innovation and risk appetite”. Read about it here.

The suggestion is effectively that the government is stretching the regulator too thin at a policy level - and that pursuing a growth agenda is preventing the regulator from defending against financial crime.

Elsewhere in the speech, Rathi called for a system-wide approach to tackling financial crime. This includes better information sharing, smarter use of technology and deeper collaboration across firms, regulators, government and law enforcement.

Advisers:

  • Is the FCA being stretched too thin between supporting growth and tackling financial crime?
  • Has the government placed too much emphasis on competitiveness and innovation at the expense of enforcement?
  • Is enough currently being done to address financial crime?

Very keen to hear your thoughts on the speech. 

Hereward 

1 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Nouran Moustafa
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
Financial crime is not some distant banking problem. Advisers see the front line of it through suspicious enquiries, unusual source of funds, vulnerable clients being targeted, impersonation scams and clients arriving after they have already been emotionally manipulated by fraudsters.
Is enough being done? Honestly, no. Chasing every single lead is unrealistic, but criminals are organised, fast and tech-enabled, so the response cannot be slow, fragmented and paper-based. We need better information sharing, smarter technology and proper collaboration between firms, regulators, banks and law enforcement.
The challenge is balance. We cannot make onboarding so painful that honest clients feel treated like criminals, but we also cannot be naive. For advice firms, the answer is strong source-of-funds checks, staff training, client education and the confidence to walk away when something feels wrong. Financial crime prevention is not compliance admin anymore; it is client protection.