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Expert opinions

Francesco Fulcoli

Francesco Fulcoli Chief Compliance and Risk Officer at Flagstone

New Risk Landscape: What the EBA’s 2025 Report Means for Fintech

The European Banking Authority (EBA) recently published its fifth biennial Opinion and Report on money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) risks affecting the EU’s financial sector. While these reports are typically regulatory in nature, the 2025 edition reads like a warning bell for the fintech industry — especially for firms that are gr...

/regulation /crime Fintech

Joseph Ibitola

Joseph Ibitola Head of Demand Generation at Flagright

Detecting NFC Relay and Ghost Tap Attacks Using Metadata and Real-Time Rules

As contactless payments become ubiquitous, fraudsters are evolving new tactics to exploit them. A Near Field Communication (NFC) relay attack is one such threat. It intercepts and relays the communication between a contactless card (or phone) and a payment terminal over a longer distance. In simple terms, an attacker uses a proxy device to “extend...

/payments /crime SEPA and European Payments

Joseph Ibitola

Joseph Ibitola Head of Demand Generation at Flagright

Establishing “Expected Behavior”: Using Median, Standard Deviation and Avg to Detect Suspicious Txns

In AML and fraud monitoring, expected behavior refers to the normal patterns of transactions for a given customer, their typical transfer amounts, frequency of transactions, usual beneficiaries or destinations, etc. Defining this baseline is critical because it enables compliance teams to distinguish routine activity from anomalies. Unusual transa...

/regulation /crime RegTech

Joseph Ibitola

Joseph Ibitola Head of Demand Generation at Flagright

What’s the Best Dynamic Risk Scoring Algorithm?

Comparing Moving Averages, Simple Averages, and Weighted Scoring for AML & Fraud Financial crime risk is not static. A customer’s risk profile can shift rapidly with new transactions, behaviors, or data. Yet historically, many financial institutions relied on one-time or infrequently updated risk scores, leaving blind spots. In fact, in 2024 a...

/payments /crime RegTech

Glenn Fratangelo

Glenn Fratangelo Director of Product Marketing and Strategy at NICE Actimize

Elder Financial Exploitation: What Financial Institutions Must Do

Elder financial exploitation is more than just a fraud issue — it’s a pressing public health and consumer protection challenge. As the population ages and digital channels become more prevalent, older adults are increasingly targeted by scammers and abusers, often with greater frequency and success. From romance scams to trusted caregivers abusing...

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Research

Future of Report

The future of payments in major global markets: A mid-decade review

2025 is a significant year for the global payments industry. Marking the midpoint of the decade, and witnessing pivotal trends like the rise of real-time payments, advanced fraud detection and prevention, data portability, and open finance—these interlinked developments will set the stage for innovation through to 2030 and beyond.  The payments industry is now at the tipping point of global innovation, especially with global e-commerce market revenue projected to reach over $4.3 billion in 2025 and grow by 8% (CAGR 2025-2029). Further, by 2026, 5.2 billion people, or more than 60% of the global population, are expected to use digital wallets. The value of global transactions through account-to-account (A2A) payments is also predicted to rise from $1.7 trillion in 2024 to $5.7 trillion by 2029 – an increase of 230%. This will also pave the way for real-time payments to boom, with an expected CAGR of over 35% from 2024 to 2032. Looking at major global markets, the UK has continued to be at the forefront of the global payments revolution, quickly emerging as a hub for open banking as a result of the PSD2 directive and the UK’s pioneering standard. In October 2024, the Data Use and Access Bill was introduced to the House of Lords, signalling the UK’s commitment to bolstering open banking’s data sharing principles. Similarly, a month later, the National Payments Vision was unveiled, charting a clear path for the entire ecosystem to leverage technologies such as AI and DLT. The payments revolution is also taking over Europe. The Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) is rolling out instant payments by amending SEPA and adding specific provisions on instant credit transfers in euro to existing cross-border regulation: the Settlement Finality Directive (SFD) and the Payment Services Directive (PSD2). IPR also demands for Verification of Payee (VoP), confirming a recipient's account details before a payment is made and bringing down increasing numbers of fraud, particularly in the instant payments space. Similar to other regions, the US has made significant steps toward the innovation and interoperability of real-time payments – most recently through the launch of FedNow in 2023, the Federal Reserve’s real-time payment rail. Predictions show a total value of $95 billion in-app social commerce payments by 2030 in the US alone, meaning the integration of open banking is pivotal to maximising the value to be gained from e-commerce. However, the impact of the Trump administration’s strains on the CFPB and how that will effect Section 1033 and open banking in the US will be seen. This Finextra report, in association with Form3, examines the impact of these crucial advancements on the future of global payment schemes in the UK, Europe and the US, highlighting insights from experts at Bank of America, Crédit Agricole, ING, J.P. Morgan Payments, Lloyds, Santander, and Truist.

545 downloads

Survey

Navigating the Nordic financial landscape: 2025 challenges and priorities

As the Nordic financial sector faces new hurdles and opportunities, a variety of issues are front and centre for financial institutions, technology providers, and fintechs.  Our latest survey of 150 responses reveals how Nordic institutions across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are navigating the current landscape and their strategic priorities for 2025. Providing valuable insights into areas such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), Verification of Payee (VoP), AI’s growing role in financial services, perspectives on central bank digital currency (CBDC) and stablecoin, and evolving payment trends such as Account-to-Account (A2A) and instant payments.  Analysis of our survey responses provides a comprehensive overview on how Nordic institutions are navigating transformation shaped by innovation, regulation, and evolving customer expectations, with progress and priorities varying by country.  We explore regional specific views towards:  Key priorities for 2025  Readiness for Verification of Payee (VoP)  Strategic AI integration for real impact  The rise of A2A, instant, and mobile payments  Attitudes towards central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoin  The impact of DORA 

341 downloads

Future of Report

The Future of US Digital Payments 2025: ACH & Beyond

A special edition for Nacha's Smarter Faster Payments 2025.    The US digital payments landscape stands at a transformative crossroads. With the launch of RTP in 2016 and FedNow in 2023, the foundational infrastructure for instant payments is finally in place - poised to revolutionise the speed, efficiency, and security of transactions across the economy.    Yet despite these advancements, the path to widespread adoption remains complex and cautious. Entrenched systems like ACH and Wire, with their deep integration and long-standing reliability, continue to dominate due to their established utility and the significant investment required to pivot toward newer rails.    It’s not just a question of technological readiness, but of mindset, cost, and strategy. The advantages of instant payments—real-time access to funds, reduced credit risk, and improved liquidity—are clear. However, to truly unlock these benefits, banks and institutions must overcome the inertia of legacy systems and embrace modernisation, often with the support of flexible, cloud-native solutions that can de-risk and streamline the transition.    This Finextra report, in association with Form 3, explores industry sentiment on the future of US digital payments and showcases the views of BNY, Citizens, Green Dot, J.P. Morgan, U.S. Bank, and the US Faster Payments Council. It explores:    Evolving ACH infrastructure;  Enhancing RPT and FedNow capabilities;  How new rails interact with existing rails;  Redefining transactional architecture through emerging technologies;  Recognising risk as a strategic advantage in fraud prevention;  Prioritising innovation and compliance at the same time. 

390 downloads

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FinextraTV

Verification of Payee: The role of RVMs & Conformance

Joining the FinextraTV studio at EBAday 2025 in Paris, Paulo Barbosa, COO, Banfico helped to provide an understanding of what a routing and verification mechanism (RVM) is and how it is impacting the verification of payee landscape. Barbosa provided an up-to-date look at what is currently evolving ahead of the October deadline, whilst sharing clarifications around the role RVM's play alongside banks to provide greater speed, experience and compliance.

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Long reads

Madhvi Sonia

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

World Day Against Trafficking in Persons: Can AI and quantum computing turn the tide?

Marked on 30 July, International Human Trafficking Day, otherwise known as World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, was established in response to a request for the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to host a meeting to counter the buying and selling of fellow humans in 2006. Fast forward to 2015, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda...

Madhvi Sonia

Madhvi Sonia Head of Content at Finextra

What Australia’s Confirmation of Payee means for the future of fraud prevention

July 2025 saw Australian banks unveil their version of scam fighting technology Confirmation of Payee, allowing names to be matched to accounts and preventing customers from being tricked into sending funds to fraudsters. Forming part of the Scam-Safe Accord – a joint initiative of the Australian Banking Association (ABA) and the Customer Owned Ba...

Dominique Dierks

Dominique Dierks Senior Content Manager at Finextra

What are deepfakes? Understanding modern scams

While AI and generative AI technology have made leaps in streamlining financial services over the last decade, fraudsters have made similar strides to use this technology for their advantage. Most nefariously, deepfakes becomes increasingly hard to differentiate from reality. So what is deepfake technology? And how is it affecting financial servic...