Collaboration and Collective Action in the Face of a $4.4 Trillion Financial Crime Crisis

The global financial crime landscape has entered a new era, defined by speed, scale, and sophistication unlike anything we have seen before. Financial crime is not a future threat — it is the reality financial institutions, governments, businesses, and communities are confronting right now.

In just two years since we released Nasdaq Verafin’s inaugural Global Financial Crime Report, illicit financial activity has surged by more than $1.3 trillion, reaching an estimated $4.4 trillion globally. Fraud losses alone now exceed half a trillion dollars annually. Those figures are staggering, not just revealing the size of the problem, but the rate that criminal networks are evolving.

Criminal organizations today operate with the coordination, resources, and technical fluency of multinational corporations. They are leveraging artificial intelligence to industrialize scams, personalize deception, and move illicit funds faster than traditional defenses can keep pace — across borders, jurisdictions, and sectors that weren’t designed to respond collectively.

Financial Crime Is Not a Compliance Problem

Too often, financial crime is treated as a regulatory or compliance issue, confined to individual financial institutions. The data tells a different story.

Fraud, scams, money laundering, human trafficking, and drug trafficking are all deeply interconnected. Criminal networks exploit the gaps between financial institutions, industries and countries using disconnected intelligence and insufficient cross-border coordination to their advantage. Closing these gaps through shared intelligence and coordinated action is essential to disrupting criminal networks at scale.

Financial institutions sit on the front lines of this fight, but they cannot and should not be expected to confront these threats alone. The complexity of today’s criminal activity, combined with real-time payments and increasingly porous borders, demands a coordinated, cross-sector response.

AI as an Accelerant and an Opportunity

Artificial intelligence is reshaping financial crime on both sides of the equation.

In the wrong hands, the misuse of AI is an accelerant for criminal activity, powering scam playbooks and enabling industrialized fraud. In our research, 90% of financial crime professionals reported an increase in AI-driven attacks over the past two years.

But the same innovation, paired with collective intelligence and network-level insights, represents one of our most powerful opportunities to get ahead of financial crime. Three-quarters of the professionals we surveyed plan to increase their use of AI for financial crime detection. The challenge now is ensuring these capabilities are not deployed in isolation but aligned across ecosystems where criminals already collaborate.

From Insights to Impact

In March I spoke at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol Global Fraud Summit 2026, alongside leaders from government, law enforcement, financial services, technology, and civil society. Across those discussions a consistent theme emerged — understanding the threat is only the first step. The real challenge lies in translating insight into action at the speed and scale required to disrupt today’s criminal networks.

Throughout the 2026 Global Financial Crime Report, we highlight real-world examples that show how coordinated action can work at scale, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA). In a session we hosted at the Fraud Summit, these organizations demonstrated how collaboration across sectors and borders can move beyond theory into practice, connecting public and private stakeholders around shared intelligence and a common understanding of risk. Coordinated, cross-sector action is not merely aspirational but achievable, and it is already making a measurable difference.

While in Vienna, Nasdaq Verafin announced a pledge with the UNODC to host future convenings focused on cross-sector collaboration against fraud, scams, and money laundering. This pledge reflects our belief that meaningful progress will not come from one-off reports or isolated initiatives, but from sustained engagement and shared responsibility across institutions, sectors and borders.

A Call to Collective Action

As the 2026 Global Financial Crime Report makes clear, no single institution can meet today’s threats alone. Fragmented responses will always lag criminal threats. Progress depends on shared responsibility, coordinated collaboration, and the rapid adoption of innovative technology that allows intelligence to move at the speed of transactions across industries and borders.

By aligning financial institutions, policymakers, law enforcement, and technology providers we can disrupt criminal networks and protect communities. These examples serve as the blueprints to how we can successfully fight financial crime globally.

I encourage leaders across financial services, government, technology, and beyond to engage with this report as a catalyst for action. Use it to challenge assumptions, to identify gaps and bring new partners to the table.

Read and download the 2026 Nasdaq Verafin Global Financial Crime Report

About the Author:

STEPHANIE CHAMPION
EVP & Head of Nasdaq Verafin, Financial Crime Management Technology, Nasdaq

Stephanie Champion is Executive Vice President, Head of Nasdaq Verafin, which provides industry-leading solutions for anti-financial crime. She has over 16 years experience at Nasdaq Verafin and previously served as Senior Vice President, Head of Sales for Nasdaq Financial Crime Management Technology business, leading global sales strategy and operations across the Nasdaq Verafin organization with a focus on new customer acquisition and retention. Stephanie is passionate about leadership, supporting women in technology and guiding others through professional development and success.  Stephanie holds a B.Sc. in Neuroscience from Memorial University.