AI-Driven Financial Crime Pushes New Limits on Illicit Activity

The scale of global financial crime has reached unprecedented levels, with illicit financial activity estimated to have surged to $4.4 trillion in 2025, according to new research from Nasdaq Verafin.

AI-Driven Financial Crime Pushes New Limits 

The findings underline the growing sophistication of criminal networks and the increasingly central role artificial intelligence now plays in fraud, scams, money laundering and terrorist financing.

The company’s 2026 Global Financial Crime Report, produced in collaboration with Celent and Oliver Wyman, paints a stark picture of a financial system under sustained attack from highly organised criminal enterprises operating with corporate-style efficiency and technological sophistication.

Financial Crime Growth Accelerates Across Every Category

The report estimates that illicit financial activity has increased by $1.3 trillion since 2023, representing compound annual growth of more than 19%.

Drug trafficking remains the largest contributor, accounting for approximately $1.1 trillion in illicit flows globally.

Human trafficking generated an estimated $528.5 billion, while terrorist financing reached $16.2 billion.

Perhaps most concerning for the payments industry in the rapid escalation of fraud and scams. Global fraud-related losses reached $579.4 billion in 2025, with scam activity growing significantly faster than traditional bank fraud.

Investment fraud, particularly schemes linked to cryptocurrency, was identified as one of the fastest-growing threats. Business email compromise and romance scams also continue to expand at scale, fuelled by increasingly convincing synthetic identities, deepfake technology and AI-generated communications.

Elder fraud alone now accounts for an estimated $88.6 billion in losses globally, highlighting the growing vulnerability of older consumers to digitally enabled financial deception.

Artificial Intelligence Becomes Both Threat and Defence

The report suggests the financial services industry has entered a new phase in the evolution of financial crime, where AI is simultaneously empowering criminals while also becoming one of the sector’s most important defensive tools.

According to Nasdaq Verafin’s survey of more than 500 financial crime professionals, 90% reported a rise in AI-driven attacks over the past two years. Criminal organisations are now using generative AI to automate scams, personalise phishing campaigns and produce highly convincing fake content at scale.

At the same time, financial institutions are increasingly investing in AI-powered detection and monitoring systems.

Around 80% of respondents stated they plan to increase spending on AI-based anti-financial crime capabilities over the next two years, while nearly three-quarters identified AI-driven detection tools as one of the most effective opportunities to strengthen fraud prevention.

This growing technological arms race is likely to become one of the defining operational challenges for banks, payment providers and fintechs throughout the remainder of the decade.

Collaboration Emerging as Critical Industry Priority

Alongside technology investment, the report places heavy emphasis on cross-sector collaboration as a necessary response to increasingly globalised criminal activity.

Nasdaq Verafin has announced a new initiative supporting the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, aimed at strengthening cooperation between financial institutions, regulators and private sector organisations. The programme will include industry workshops and strategic roundtables focused on tackling fraud, scams and money laundering more effectively.

For the payments sector, the message is becoming increasingly clear: isolated institutional responses are no longer sufficient. Financial crime has evolved into a highly networked global enterprise, and combating it will require the same level of coordination, intelligence sharing and technological innovation from the industry itself.