Bad timing for London. FATF assessors will rate the UK's anti-money laundering system in June 2027. The Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) mandatory crypto regime will only come into force four months later. The RUSI (Royal United Services Institute) working group already ranks crypto laundering among the country’s “material risks”.
The FATF will adopt its final report during its plenary in February 2028. Until then, inspectors will look less at the quality of British texts than at their effectiveness on the ground. Seizures and convictions will be taken as proof.
Key Points
FATF inspectors arrive in London in June 2027, four months before the FCA's crypto framework
Two thirds of investment scams across the Channel involve digital assets, according to City police
The seizure of 61,000 bitcoins in the Zhimin Qian affair remains an isolated case in the eyes of RUSI experts
Modeled on MiCA, the British model leaves out the most exposed players, Tether and DeFi in the lead
This is the first UK assessment where the FATF will examine cryptocurrencies. From Paris, the Financial Action Task Force sets global standards against money laundering and terrorist financing. Its peer reviews rate states on the actual application of their rules. However, these ratings weigh heavily on the access of local banks to international circuits.
The figures are known. According to the City of London Police, 66% of investment fraud in the UK involves digital assets. The damage recorded reaches 649 million pounds in 2024. In 2025, the national risk assessment raised cryptocurrency laundering from the “medium” level to the “high” level. The first ranking was five years ago.
Since 2020, crypto companies must comply with UK anti-money laundering obligations. They go through registration with the FCA, which has refused it to the overwhelming majority of candidates. A February law created a statutory regime. In April, the regulator specified the activities it would supervise, then it finalized its regulations in June. Mandatory entry into force: October 25, 2027.
The working group doubts that London can demonstrate sufficient implementation before the assessors arrive. He considers the British approach more cautious than those of Hong Kong, the European Union and Singapore. Its members agree on one point that the assessors will examine closely: over-the-counter brokers. According to the National Crime Agency, they probably launder several hundred million dollars a year.
The working group recognizes the United Kingdom as a coup. The Metropolitan Police seized around £5 billion in bitcoins in the Zhimin Qian case. This professional Chinese laundress had defrauded 128,000 savers, then fled to London with 61,000 BTC. The courts sentenced her in 2025 to eleven years and eight months in prison. The report sees this as proof that British criminal justice knows how to strike hard when it has the means.
A member of the group dampened the optimism. According to him, success has not been repeated in enough businesses. The country has only scratched the surface of cryptocurrency laundering. The FATF will check whether the results are commensurate with the identified risk, without focusing on a spectacular case.
The British regime, similar to the European MiCA regulation, targets identifiable companies. The working group sees a pushback effect: the most exposed activities slip outside the scope of the FCA. It is then up to investigators to track assets that the regulator cannot reach.
The British Treasury specifically targeted Tether's USDT in its 2025 threat assessment. According to it, Russian-speaking laundering networks have "extensively exploited" the stablecoin. Group members doubt whether law enforcement has been given the capacity and budgets to keep up.
Cash does not freeze. Tether, on the other hand, blocks addresses at the request of the authorities. The issuer claims more than $2.9 billion in USDT held with nearly 300 agencies in around sixty jurisdictions. The traceability of a centralized stablecoin thus offers British investigators leverage that cannot be found in the face of suitcases of banknotes.
The report praises the country's international cooperation. Example: Operation Destabilize against Russian-speaking networks which converted street cash into cryptocurrencies. The National Crime Agency announced 84 arrests and more than 20 million books seized. Two weaknesses remain on the table. The first relates to the resources of the British financial intelligence unit. The second, to the capacity of law enforcement in the face of economic crime.
London is not the only one concerned. According to the FATF, nearly 93% of the jurisdictions surveyed still did not apply its standards to the DeFi platforms concerned. RUSI had already deemed the ban on crypto privacy tools counterproductive. He also documented North Korea's growing use of criminal networks to launder its thefts. Its working group is meeting again this month to review recent assessments from other countries.
Eleven months separate London from the assessors' visit. And the FCA’s crypto regime still won’t apply when they leave. The United Kingdom will play its part on what its investigators seize and what its courts convict. In the window, a single file worth five billion pounds.
