Key Trends Across AML, Fraud and KYC

• This year saw a large number of organisations being fined for fundamental AML & KYC failings. What are the key global regulatory drivers, and what is changing in the new year? 
• As fraud is becoming increasingly more sophisticated, what is the financial crime outlook for 2026? 
• As AI tooling becomes more prevalent, what are the key use cases in KYC, AML, and fraud applications? How are financial institutions innovating in the space? 
• KYC arguably sits at the heart of AML and fraud prevention and has a large downstream impact. How are financial institutions adapting their KYC technology and processes, and consolidate their systems to enable KYC across functions? What role does consortium data play? 
• How are financial institutions balancing the competing priorities of needing to get risk management right while simultaneously being under cost-pressure and needing to onboard quickly to ensure a good customer experience? 
  
   

When it comes to fraud controls, KYC and AML are some of the key concerns of financial institutions going into 2026. AFP’s 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey finds that 79% of organisations were victims of payments fraud attacks in 2024. Simultaneously, regulatory bodies across jurisdictions are taking strong action against fundamental AML failings. Barclays, Klarna, and Monzo are just some of the financial institutions having been fined significantly over the last 12 months, and EU regulators have levied over €36 million in AML fines in the same period. 

As financial institutions battle increasingly sophisticated fraud, the availability of advanced technology (for both good and bad actors), as well as the increasing regulatory scrutiny, KYC becomes a key element in the fraud control chain. Yet the overall KYC process can only be as good as the sum of its parts, so how are financial institutions adapting to innovations in technology and the increasing availability of AI tooling? Importantly, data sharing and system consolidation become crucial in 2026 and beyond to allow KYC processes to smoothly move across different business functions. 

At the same time, regulatory scrutiny is increasing. The new EU AML package establishes a new Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA), with the aim of strengthening EU-wide AML/CFT rules and harmonising requirements across member states. What do these changes mean for financial institutions? And how do they need to adapt their KYC processes and technology to address this new regulatory reality? 

Register for this Finextra webinar, hosted in association with NICE Actimize, to join our panel of industry experts who will discuss financial crime compliance in 2026 and explore the outlook on KYC, AML, and fraud.