A year on from the UNDP Sevilla Initiative for Accountable Service Providers, the debate around ‘professional enablers’ has moved on and intensified. Given the June 2026 World Bank/UN StAR report on professional enablers, the UK’s Illicit Finance Summit held in London in June 2026, in addition to ongoing work led by United Nations Development Programme, expectations on lawyers and accountants remain in focus.
 
Once framed as neutral advisers, professionals are increasingly positioned critically as potential facilitators of illicit financial flows. Against this backdrop, difficult questions are emerging. Are existing ethical frameworks and AML obligations sufficient, or are they being outpaced by regulatory and political pressure? Is enhanced self-regulation credible, or is external intervention inevitable? And to what extent are the professions being asked to solve a problem they did not create?
 
This session brings together perspectives across these developments to examine whether the current trajectory represents meaningful reform or reactive policymaking. It will explore the practical realities facing professionals, the risks to independence and privilege, and the growing expectation that the legal and accounting sectors play a more proactive role in safeguarding financial integrity.
 
Framed as a candid, roundtable discussion, the session will challenge assumptions, test the limits of current approaches, and ask a central question: are professionals truly part of the solution, or still uncomfortably close to the problem?