In December 2025, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced, without much fanfare, it would be holding an Illicit Finance Summit in June 2026. To date there has been a complete absence of publicity by the government and a lack of engagement with civil society. A month before the Summit was due to take place it was quietly postponed until an unannounced date in ‘December 2026’. Subsequently, MPs were finally able to shine a light on the Summit and give it some much-needed parliamentary attention, earlier this month, in a Westminster Hall Debate led by Steff Aquarone MP. As Aquarone highlighted, “Illicit finance is a poison and cancer spreading through our country, infecting everything it touches” - it’s not a niche issue of law enforcement, it impacts on the whole of society. 

The UK sits at the middle of the spider’s web of global Illicit Finance. Each year, a staggering £788bn of illicit finance flows through the UK, its Overseas Territories (OTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs). This is more than the government spends on health, social care, pensions, education, defence and social security combined. The UK Government has taken a limited definition of Illicit Finance - focusing on the proceeds of illegal activity and sanctions evasion, particularly via cryptocurrencies, the gold trade and property markets. This approach leaves out a key component of illicit finance: tax abuse - both (illegal) tax evasion and (legal) aggressive and systematic tax avoidance. The United Nation’s definition makes it clear - tax abuse goes hand in hand with illicit finance and the two cannot be separated. 

The UK is both one of the biggest losers due to international tax abuse, and one of the countries most responsible for losses suffered by others. The UK and its OTs and CDs - like the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Jersey and Guernsey - are responsible for over a quarter of lost revenues worldwide. But it is not just money the UK is losing - financial secrecy in the OTs has made the UK vulnerable to national security threats and corruption risks, undermining the UK’s reputation, safety and security. 

The Government’s stated ambition is to achieve financial transparency in the OTs and CDs through the introduction of Publicly Accessible Registers of Beneficial Ownership - making it clear who is the ultimate owner of accounts, businesses and assets moving through the territories. These are vital for allowing journalists, civil society and governments to track and investigate illicit activities and uncover wrongdoing. Despite being introduced in the UK in 2017 and mandated in offshore jurisdictions in 2018, the worst offending OTs - the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands - have neutered these measures with “legitimate interest” clauses which make them completely ineffective. Investigators would have to prove wrongdoing before being able to uncover beneficial ownership, often with the owner being informed beforehand allowing them to take steps to maintain secrecy.

All this goes hand in hand with proper regulation and action to tackle the domestic enablers of illicit finance in UK professional services, like the lawyers, bankers and property agents in the City of London. Additionally, there needs to be meaningful progress that prevents the use of ‘lawfare’ or ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’ (Slapps). These are used by the corrupt, super-rich and powerful to stymie journalists, civil society and investigators by dragging them through potentially financially ruinous legal cases in order to silence reporting on dirty money. To hold a conference on Illicit Finance without tackling these issues head on is the equivalent of holding a football match with only one team. 

Why the government has excluded many of these issues from scope of the Summit has never been publicly stated. It could have something to do with the role of vested interests and lobby groups, which too-often have the ear of Government. FOI data shows that there has been an 82% rise in meetings between HMT and the banking sector since Labour came into government, compared to just an 18% rise in all other groups. Banks dominate Treasury thinking, and have managed to push the government into a de-regulatory approach. Measures to tackle illicit finance would require more regulation and for banks to ask more questions about their clients.

As an international summit, it is vital that voices from the Global South are at the table. Illicit financial flows are depriving the African continent of an estimated 50 billion USD every single year. While higher income countries lose taxes equivalent to around 7% of their public health budget; for lower income countries that loss is five times bigger, at around 36%. Andrew Mitchell MP highlighted this during the debate - “money stolen from Africa and Africans” finds itself laundered through the UK financial system - it is essential they have a voice at this Summit.    

If the government continues shying away from demonstrating leadership on tackling dirty money and avoiding stepping on the toes of the biggest enablers of Illicit Finance, then the Summit will prove a wasted opportunity. Instead, they must set out a clear, credible plan that ensures overseas jurisdictions uphold the highest levels of asset ownership transparency, with meaningful support to do so. It can and must demonstrate to the public that it is serious about building an economy and upholding a system that works for ordinary people, rather than the corrupt, criminal, super-rich and powerful.

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