Breaking down silos: how unified financial crime management is reshaping banking defence

Get insights into how financial institutions can fight fraud, stay compliant, and reduce costs — all at once via an Enterprise Financial Crime Management (EFM) platform.

Introduction

In a rapidly evolving financial landscape where fraud has increased by 65% globally and real-time payments continue to accelerate, financial institutions face unprecedented challenges in combating financial crime.

During a recent webinar hosted by The Paypers, industry experts Rob Meakin, Director, Fraud & Identity, Creditinfo, and Ivan Stefanov, CEO & Co-Founder of NOTO, explored how an Enterprise Financial Crime Management (EFM) platform can significantly reduce vendor costs by consolidating fraud prevention and AML compliance solutions, optimising third-party data use, improving risk assessment accuracy, and lowering acquisition costs.

The panellists revealed not just the current state of financial crime management and how the latest payments innovations, such as remote client onboarding, real-time payments, and the development of Web 3 payments, but also shared a roadmap for institutions seeking to build more effective defences against increasingly sophisticated threats.

Mirela Ciobanu, Lead Editor with The Paypers, reports key learnings from their interactive discussion.

The evolution of financial crime: a year of unprecedented change

Rob Meakin painted a sobering picture of the last twelve months in the evolution of financial crime. The convergence of fraud, cyberattacks, and traditional money laundering has created a new paradigm in which criminals no longer need deep technical skills.

Through ‘fraud-as-a-service’ offerings, bad actors can now acquire end-to-end fraud capabilities as easily as defenders can purchase security solutions. AI and automation have turbocharged these operations, enabling multilingual social engineering campaigns, voice deep fakes, and automated phishing at unprecedented scales.

The rise of synthetic identity creation has been particularly alarming, with AI enabling identity-based credit fraud to scale at rates never seen before. As Rob emphasised, this isn't just about increased fraud volume – it's about a fundamental shift in the sophistication and accessibility of criminal tools.

Meanwhile, tightening AML regulations and increased regulatory enforcement add another layer of complexity for financial institutions trying to maintain both security and customer experience.

The hidden costs of fragmented systems

The webinar's live polling revealed a stark reality: 50% of participating organisations still operate with completely siloed tools and teams for fraud prevention and AML compliance functions. Ivan Stefanov detailed how this fragmentation creates cascading problems beyond obvious vendor costs. Organisations maintaining separate solutions for account opening, transaction monitoring, and watchlist screening often find themselves managing four to six different platforms, each with its own database, analyst team, and reporting structure.

This complexity translates into delayed customer escalation handling, suboptimal detection rates, and increased customer friction. As Ivan explained, technical debt accumulates quickly – multiple implementations require separate vendor risk assessments, compliance reviews under DORA and GDPR, and ongoing maintenance by already-stretched DevOps teams. Rob added another critical dimension: fragmented systems don't just create inefficiency; they reduce effectiveness by preventing organisations from leveraging the full breadth of their data for predictive analytics.

The operational overhead is staggering. Compliance teams performing due diligence on accounts may be unaware that fraud teams have already cleared the same customers, leading to duplicated effort and wasted resources. Conversely, fraud analysts might miss critical compliance red flags that could inform their investigations. This lack of visibility across teams creates blind spots that sophisticated criminals increasingly exploit.

Building the foundation: what success looks like

Both experts agreed that successful EFM platforms share several key characteristics. First and foremost, the ability to ingest data without predefined contexts or limitations allows organisations to assign their own meaning to transaction types, user definitions, and risk parameters. This flexibility enables institutions to adapt quickly to changing threats without waiting for vendor updates or custom development.

The platform must provide real-time, low-latency decision-making across the entire customer journey – from onboarding through transactions to collections. As Rob mentioned, this isn't just about speed; it's about maintaining predictive accuracy while processing high volumes. The ability to seamlessly orchestrate third-party data sources, whether bureau data, device intelligence, or biometric verification, becomes crucial for comprehensive risk assessment.

Ivan highlighted the importance of horizontal scalability and multi-tenancy capabilities, particularly for global organisations dealing with varied regulatory regimes. The platform should allow different teams to work in their specialised areas while sharing underlying data and insights. This approach preserves the expertise of fraud and compliance teams while eliminating the inefficiencies of complete separation.

Most importantly, success requires what Ivan called a ‘centralised decision-making layer’ that provides unified visibility while maintaining the flexibility for teams to configure their specific rules, models, and workflows. This isn't about forcing convergence where it doesn't make sense, but instead creating intelligent bridges between previously isolated functions.

Key takeaways

• Successful EFM platforms require flexible data ingestion, real-time processing capabilities, and the ability to orchestrate multiple third-party data sources without creating new silos;
• Breaking down organisational silos doesn't mean eliminating specialisation – it means creating intelligent connections that allow teams to share insights while maintaining their domain expertise;
• When evaluating AI solutions for financial crime prevention, organisations must maintain human oversight and carefully scrutinise vendor practices around data handling and compliance;
• The partnership between solution providers like NOTO and data providers like Creditinfo demonstrates the value of combining flexible platforms with comprehensive data insights.

Conclusion

The path forward for financial institutions is clear: the era of managing fraud and AML compliance through disconnected, siloed systems is becoming untenable. As criminal organisations become more sophisticated and regulations more stringent, the need for unified Enterprise Financial Crime Management platforms has shifted from a nice-to-have to a strategic imperative. Rob's closing advice resonates powerfully: success lies in connecting processes, breaking down silos, and creating a clearer, more accurate view of risk across the entire customer journey.

For organisations beginning this journey, Ivan's counsel to start with a clear assessment of existing systems and risk profiles provides a practical first step. The promise of new technologies, particularly AI, offers tremendous potential, but as both experts emphasised, it must be approached with appropriate scrutiny and human oversight. The future of financial crime prevention isn't just about better technology – it's about creating intelligent, connected ecosystems that can adapt as quickly as the threats they face. In this new landscape, the institutions that succeed will be those that view enterprise financial crime management not as a cost centre, but as a strategic enabler of both security and growth.

About author

Mirela Ciobanu is Lead Editor at The Paypers, focusing on following the latest trends and developments in fraud, cybersecurity, and technology (generative AI, blockchain analytics, data, etc.). Topics related to compliance, risk management, and balancing those with great user experience play an important role in her expertise.

Mirela is particularly passionate about the importance of having interoperable digital identity solutions that help not only to secure payments but also transactions in other areas of life (travel, health, education). She is a strong advocate for online data privacy and protection. As a skilled writer, she strives to deliver accurate and informative insights to her readers, always in pursuit of the most compelling version of the truth. To share more ideas and get inspired, connect with Mirela on LinkedIn or reach out via email at mirelac@thepaypers.com.