UK Financial Crime Trends & Technology

2025 was a defining year for financial crime in the UK. What once felt like slow, predictable shifts now moves at the speed of technology – and, increasingly, at the speed of AI-enabled criminal innovation. As investigators, analysts and financial institutions battled rising authorised push payment (APP) fraud, sophisticated scams and a rapidly evolving mule ecosystem, one thing became clear: the landscape isn’t just changing, it’s accelerating.  

In a recent year-in-review webinar, I joined with my Nasdaq Verafin colleague to discuss the key trends of 2025 and how financial institutions across the UK can prepare for 2026 and beyond.  

2025’s Trends: AI Powered Criminals, Organised Networks & Surging Scams

In 2025, fraudsters increasingly leveraged deepfakes, voice cloning, synthetic identities and hyper-personalised phishing to target victims more effectively. Gone are the days of obvious grammatical errors or clumsy email attempts. Criminals now operate with polished, AI-supported playbooks that provide structured scripts and scenario-based guidance used in global scam centres, showing just how methodical and sophisticated these operations have become. 

Scam typologies also shifted with social and geopolitical trends. Romance scams spiked during socially isolating periods, investment scams rose in tandem with crypto volatility and purchase scams surged around major cultural moments — from concerts to sporting events. Criminals followed public interest, not banking controls. 

APP fraud remained the UK’s biggest threat, fuelled by the simple reality that social engineering and manipulating people is easier than breaking bank-grade authentication. Once funds are deposited in a mule account, laundering activity disperses the money trail across networks that are difficult for financial institutions to trace. 

Industry Regulations: The Growing Expectation to Do More

PSR: Reimbursement Shift

The first full year of the Payment Systems Regulator’s (PSR) mandatory reimbursement model fundamentally changed how institutions in the UK absorbed fraud losses. This has brought: 

• Greater consumer protection.
• Faster reimbursement timelines.
• Increased pressure on banks—especially mid-tier and smaller institutions with leaner fraud teams.

While the aim of PSR’s reimbursement changes helped victims, it has not yet reduced the overall volume of APP fraud. 

PSD3: Closing Gaps, Raising Expectations

The European Union’s Payment Services Directive 3 (PSD3) pushes for stronger real-time fraud detection, broader use of strong customer authentication and expanded scope for fintechs and payment service providers. It signals a move toward more harmonised, data-enabled fraud prevention across Europe. While the PSD3 does not directly impact UK institutions, it is anticipated that the PSR will bring a level of alignment and evolution to its own regulations as both jurisdictions focus on tackling the same problems. 

Article 75: The Data Sharing Catalyst

Perhaps the most transformative regulatory push is Article 75 of the EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), which encourages cross-border, cross-institution data sharing for AML and fraud prevention. Financial institutions hesitate to share data due to reasons such as privacy, liability and governance concerns — but regulators are making it increasingly clear that intelligent data sharing is essential to stop organised financial crime. 

How Institutions Can Fight Back: AI, Analytics, Collaboration & Better Intelligence

As criminals scale with technology, institutions must match — and exceed — their sophistication. Financial crime management teams will need a multi-faceted approach to meet this challenge head on. 

Agentic AI & Digital Workers

Agentic AI is emerging as the most impactful technological advancement for financial crime teams. Rather than simply flagging anomalies, these systems can autonomously gather data, synthesise information, and help drive investigative conclusions — allowing investigators to retain oversight.
This does not replace human expertise — it amplifies it — freeing teams from manual triage and allowing them to focus on complex cases and true risk. 

Stronger Behavioural & Device Analytics

To meet the evolution of fraud, enhanced by AI tools and organized criminal groups, 2026 will favour institutions that invest in behavioural biometrics, device intelligence, and machine learning models capable of distinguishing genuine customer behaviour from manipulated or coerced activity. 

Consortium Data: Seeing Beyond Your Four Walls

The future of fraud detection is network-level intelligence. Consortium data allows institutions to spot mule herders, trace suspicious inbound payments and identify anomalies that no single financial institution can see alone. Without this shared visibility, smaller and mid-tier institutions risk becoming the “weak link” that attackers exploit. 

Education & Awareness

Outside of technology, the strongest defence against criminal scams remains customer education, especially as social engineering grows more convincing. 

Key Takeaways for 2026

1. Criminals are scaling with AI — and quickly.
   Deepfakes, voice cloning, synthetic identities and personalised scams will intensify.
2. Regulations are raising the bar.
   Institutions must adapt to increasing obligations across the PSR, PSD3, and Article 75, with more scrutiny on effectiveness.
3. Technology is a key scalable defence.
   Agentic AI, behavioural analytics, and digital workers will be critical to reducing operational strain and improving detection.
4. Collaboration is no longer optional.
   Data sharing — across institutions, sectors and borders — is essential to stop organised, network-driven crime.
5. The anti-financial crime leaders will be those who integrate all these approaches.
   Siloed data, outdated controls and manual processes won’t survive the pace of modern threats.

Ready to Dive Deeper?

This year will be an inflection point for UK financial crime teams — and those who embrace the right technology, lean into collaboration and adapt to the new regulatory landscape will be best prepared for it. If you’d like to hear the whole conversation and explore how these trends will shape your institution’s strategy, tools and investigations, watch our on-demand webinar 2025 UK Financial Crime Trends & Technology. 

 

About the Author:

KEITH FINSON 

Principal Strategic Advisor, Fraud & Financial Crime, Nasdaq Verafin 

Following a successful career in law enforcement, Keith transitioned into banking where he led Barclays’ global response to organised and complex fraud. Over five years, he spearheaded the detection, disruption and control enhancements for some of the bank’s largest fraud cases across all product types. His efforts were recognised with the CEO Award for significantly reducing fraud risk and enhancing consumer protection.

Keith subsequently held senior financial crime leadership roles at several of the UK’s largest building societies and fintechs, with a particular focus on technologies deployed across the first line of defence. This passion for innovation in financial crime management led him to Nasdaq Verafin, where he advises on strategic direction and provides thought leadership on the evolving requirements of financial crime technology.