Daily Compliance Brief — FCA Finds Persistent Money Mule Exposure Despite Account Closures

September 23, 2026

Signal

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) reported on September 23, 2026 that financial firms closed 238,396 suspected money mule accounts during 2025. According to the FCA press release, organised criminal groups continue to move illicit funds through multiple bank accounts before cashing out.

The FCA noted that suspected mule account closures have increased over the past three years, from 184,935 in 2023 to 233,269 in 2024 and 238,396 in 2025. The regulator cautioned that higher closure numbers may also reflect growth in customer bases and improvements in firms' detection capabilities.

Why it matters

The findings indicate that account closure volumes alone do not demonstrate effective disruption of mule networks. Firms should assess whether transaction monitoring identifies linked accounts, rapid movement of funds, and patterns that indicate coordinated mule activity.

Control environments may require stronger network-level analysis and escalation processes to connect suspicious activity across multiple accounts rather than treating individual accounts as isolated cases.