
The State of Financial Crime 2025
Read our latest annual state-of-the-industry report, built around a global survey of 600 compliance decision-makers and packed with expert analysis.
Download your copyFrom emerging financial crime typologies to upcoming areas of regulatory focus, proactive organizations across financial services are looking for ways to shape their compliance priorities for the year ahead. The State of Financial Crime 2025, our latest annual industry report, reviews the compliance trends to watch out for and offers expert analysis and tips on how you and your team can prepare.
At the second installment of AML Unplugged, our discussion series and networking forum for compliance professionals, a panel of industry experts unpacked some of the report’s key findings.
In a wide-ranging fireside chat moderated by journalist and editor Joy Macknight, Iain Armstrong (Regulatory Affairs Practice Lead at ComplyAdvantage), Riccardo Tordera-Ricchi (Director of Policy & Government Relations at The Payments Association), and Denisse Rudich (Founder & Executive Director, Rudich Advisory) addressed the pressing issues facing compliance leaders in 2025.
These include the growing complexity of organized crime, the emergence of data sharing initiatives, and how to invest in automation this year. This article recaps some of the main insights and tips shared at the event, geared to help compliance teams like yours optimize your compliance strategies.
Organized crime represents a growing challenge for firms. In our survey of compliance decision-makers, 71 percent said their firm currently includes organized crime risks in its overall risk assessment, but 99 percent expressed a need for greater guidance on understanding the individual offenses fueling organized crime.
This concern is well-founded. Organized crime methods are more diverse and interconnected than ever, with groups operating not just in core business areas – drug trafficking, human trafficking, racketeering – but in new areas such as illegal wildlife trafficking, cybercrime, and the infiltration of legal businesses. In the Mexican state of Michoacán, authorities estimate 80 percent of avocado orchards are linked to crimes such as land grabs and corruption.
The boundaries between crime typologies are also becoming blurred, with victims of human trafficking forced to work in “scam centers” committing fraud. Organized crime groups are using cryptocurrencies to branch out from their traditional reliance on cash, while collaboration between different organizations is increasingly common: Mexican cartels enlisting Chinese groups to launder their money is one prominent example. Like the most effective corporations, criminal enterprises are diversifying.
“Organized crime networks are profit-driven, and will look to pivot and use technology in an agile way to try to make a profit.”
Denisse Rudich, Founder and Executive Director, Rudich Advisory
Detailed, integrated threat intelligence is critical to strengthening your approach to organized crime. Our survey suggests that compliance teams are turning to multiple tools to detect organized crime risks, but many also struggle with siloed data, which 45 percent named as their biggest compliance challenge.
Your firm should look to respond to the multiple threats of organized crime with connected tools that can communicate with each other and use consolidated data to give you a 360-degree view of your risks. With the right solutions in place, you can detect, analyze, and react to emerging and unprecedented threats.
Read our latest annual state-of-the-industry report, built around a global survey of 600 compliance decision-makers and packed with expert analysis.
Download your copyAs it becomes more important than ever for firms to break their data out of siloes, information sharing continues to be a hot topic for financial institutions (FIs). 47 percent of the compliance professionals we surveyed think stronger public/private partnerships and data sharing protocols would have the greatest impact in the fight against financial crime – rating it higher than increased fines or other regulatory levers.
Recent initiatives in places like the UK, Singapore, Canada, and Hong Kong have given further momentum to the conversation around data sharing, but a few issues remain. Firms are concerned with balancing data privacy obligations with information sharing objectives, even when legislation allows for public/private or private/private sharing.
In the UK, the government has issued guidance on information sharing under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, confirming that civil liability for confidentiality breaches is disapplied for regulated firms and acknowledging that firms had been concerned about this. The Information Commissioner’s Office, meanwhile, has had to remind firms that data protection compliance is no excuse for not sharing information where a financial crime threat exists.
Clarity is needed so firms can act decisively. To balance the need for data privacy with the benefits of data sharing, you should ensure your anti-money laundering (AML) compliance software can demonstrate adherence to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or equivalent legislation.
Amid a strong industry focus on information sharing, the importance of FIs’ internal collaboration should not be lost.
When asked about their most significant barriers to implementing new or upgraded compliance software solutions, 53 percent of our survey respondents cited technological compatibility, while a similar figure mentioned concerns around their organization’s information security (InfoSec) policy.
Again, you should seek out solutions that can be easily integrated into existing tech stacks, ideally with API-based integration, and ensure that teams within your organization are not working in siloes as a first step.
“Compliance teams need to be working much more closely with their IT and Security teams, building those bridges, making sure you understand the needs of the other department and they understand your needs.”
Iain Armstrong, Regulatory Affairs Practice Lead, ComplyAdvantage
With new regulations around FIs’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) on the horizon, firms and regulators are somewhat at odds. With new rules likely to set higher standards around transparency and accountability, 70 percent of the firms we surveyed said they had a good understanding of planned AI regulation. Yet a higher figure, 91 percent, expressed a willingness to compromise AI explainability for greater efficiency and automation.
Whether this is due to gaps in firms’ true understanding of regulatory aims or pressure to get results that override regulatory concerns, the approach these results suggest is not only risky for firms, but unnecessary. There is a business case for explainable AI as well as a regulatory one: it can enhance operational efficiency, support continuous improvement in risk management, and increase client trust.
The compliance landscape is used to hot-topic conversations around AI, with generative AI and agentic AI likely to be of continued interest in 2025. However, balancing explainability with efficiency is arguably a more important challenge for firms. You should make sure you can demonstrate the methodologies your AML solution uses to make decisions, where your data has come from, the existence of robust audit trails, and the fairness and accuracy of your AI models.
Transparency will be key in your conversations with regulators, rather than assuming they will be suspicious of innovation. Given the recognition of AI’s transformative potential for compliance and the heightened regulatory scrutiny this brings, understanding the rules around its use will be essential.
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Get a demoOriginally published 05 February 2025, updated 05 February 2025
Disclaimer: This is for general information only. The information presented does not constitute legal advice. ComplyAdvantage accepts no responsibility for any information contained herein and disclaims and excludes any liability in respect of the contents or for action taken based on this information.
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