Fintech Forward Newsletter - Issue 35

With financial crime and cyber-attacks almost ever present in the news, our team kicked off the month by attending the Financial Crime 360 conference in London on 2^nd November. The event covered some of the industry's most pressing challenges from AI-enabled fraud, APP scams, AML, cybersecurity, cryptoasset regulation and digital identity, alongside the UK Fraud Strategy 2026–2029. Adopting this as the theme of our newsletter this  month, we highlight how technology, innovation and collaboration are shaping the future of financial crime prevention.

The FCA is taking a proactive step by launching its Quantum Experimentation Group in Q1 2027, bringing together financial institutions, technology providers and researchers to explore how quantum computing and machine learning could strengthen the detection of fraud and money laundering. This initiative signals growing regulatory interest in emerging technologies and their potential applications in financial services.

Agentic AI is also gaining momentum across financial crime prevention, with banks increasingly exploring its potential to reduce the cost and manual effort involved in KYC and AML operations. However, scaling beyond individual use cases remains a challenge.

Meanwhile, Forrester's assessment of financial crime management solutions highlights the industry's shift towards integrated platforms that combine fraud prevention, AML, advanced analytics and AI, moving away from fragmented, siloed systems.

Finally, the recent Binance cyberattack demonstrates how attackers are becoming increasingly skilled at exploiting human vulnerabilities – in this case using fake recruitment processes and malicious software to compromise critical financial infrastructure. Financial crime teams must be alert to the risk of growing threats and proactively strengthen all lines of defence.