Financial crime is now systemic

The findings throughout this report point to a consistent theme: financial crime is evolving faster than the systems designed to prevent it. AI is accelerating both criminal capability and organisational investment, yet practical implementation guidance continues to lag behind. Organisations are responding by strengthening fraud prevention and governance, often before regulatory expectations have fully matured.

The survey also highlights a broader challenge. While firms recognise the importance of data sharing and cross-industry collaboration, investment remains focused on capabilities that can be developed internally. This reflects the reality that organisations can improve their own controls, but many of the sector’s biggest challenges—shared intelligence, digital identity and fraud prevention across payment ecosystems—cannot be solved by any single institution.

The competitive advantage in financial crime prevention will not come from technology alone. It will come from combining strong governance, effective operational capability and meaningful collaboration across the industry. As threats become more connected, the response must become more connected too.

For The Payments Association and its members, that represents both the challenge and the opportunity: helping to build the shared infrastructure, practical guidance and industry collaboration that organisations increasingly recognise they cannot create alone.