Banks close 37,274 accounts linked to people born between 1976 and 1985

There has been a sharp increase in closures in the age range

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Criminals are still shifting dirty money through money mule accounts despite hundreds of thousands of suspect accounts having been shut down in recent years, the City regulator has said. A review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that firms have been closing an increasing number of suspected mule accounts.

Money mules help to move or disguise funds created from criminal activities. Reported offboarding, where firms closed suspected money mule accounts, rose over a three-year period to reach 238,396 in 2025, but slowed in the final year.

The total is up from 184,935 in 2023 and 233,269 in 2024. The accounts were registered to personal customers, businesses and others.

Most of them were held with retail banks and building societies. There were also signs that a growing number of account closures were linked to customers aged in their 40s.

Some 37,274 account closures in 2025 were linked to customers aged 40 to 49, up from 25,760 account closures among customers in this age group in 2024. The review document said: “Personal accounts represented around 92% of account closures for suspected money mule activity between 2023 and 2025.

“Account closures were highest among customers aged 26 to 39, while the sharpest increase was among customers aged 40 to 49. Customers aged 21 and under also represented a significant proportion of closures.

“Suspected mule account closures were more concentrated among younger customers at challenger banks, while retail banks reported a more even distribution across age groups.”

Where firms recorded gender, around two-thirds of suspected mules were men – a proportion which has been broadly stable over the three-year period – the review said. The FCA cautioned that the data has limitations because some firms did not collect data and some customers did not disclose it.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or UK corporate structures each year – and money mule activity is one way criminals move these funds, by using people’s bank accounts to receive or transfer money on their behalf.

Often, the money mule may not be fully aware what is happening and they may have been enticed by an offer of some of the cash. But the consequences of laundering stolen cash can be significant, and people could end up finding it difficult to access a bank account or credit in future, as well as facing the possibility of a criminal record.

Some money mules may be recruited in what appears to be a “job offer” with the promise of quick and easy money. Or someone may ask for money to be moved on their behalf as a favour, giving excuses for why they cannot use their own bank account to transfer money.

The FCA said criminals will sometimes move fraudulent funds through a long chain of multiple accounts. Fraud proceeds were often cashed out after moving through two to five mule accounts. By this stage, payments may be harder to detect and trace, underlining the importance of disrupting activity as early on as possible.

When cashing out, card payments were used to make lots of low-value transactions in some cases. Cryptocurrency cash-outs tended to be lower in volume but higher in value, the review said.

Some accounts had been used repeatedly for mule activity before firms shut them down and had also been used for fraud, pointing to an established criminal infrastructure rather than opportunistic, isolated incidents, the FCA said. Firms should make sure they understand how criminals move funds between accounts, both within their own institution and externally, the regulator added.

The review said: “Timely intelligence-sharing between firms can help identify linked accounts, recurring cash-out routes and laundering methods, so they can detect and disrupt mule activity earlier.”

Steve Smart, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Money muling is a crime and it’s not victimless. It makes it harder to recover stolen cash and helps criminals move and hide the proceeds of serious offending.

“People should be wary of contact out of the blue, including via online channels, asking them to funnel money through their account as they could face prosecution. It’s good that financial firms are taking action on mules, but banks, law enforcement, technology companies and consumers all have a role to play in stopping people being drawn into criminal activity.”

The FCA said people should never give sensitive financial details to someone they do not know and trust. It added that it will continue to monitor firms’ approaches through supervisory work, to ensure they are responding to evolving money mule threats.