This report presents key insights from 1,618 senior payments leaders across 51 countries, revealing how the industry is responding to escalating financial crime risks. It highlights a growing confidence gap in regulatory frameworks and the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) as the preferred solution.
The findings provide a concise overview of shifting priorities, market readiness, and the strategic direction shaping the future of financial crime prevention.
Financial crime prevention dominates the payments agenda, yet confidence in regulatory approaches remains critically divided. Analysis from our Financial Crime 360 conference reveals that whilst 75% of payments leaders identify financial crime as their primary concern, only 42% express confidence in current regulatory frameworks. This highlights an industry wrestling with increasing threat complexity and the limits of existing oversight.
This disconnect signals a shift in how the industry approaches compliance. Rather than waiting for regulatory evolution, payments leaders are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) as one of their primary solutions, with 24% identifying AI as the sector’s biggest opportunity—three times higher than any other technology. The data reflects a growing belief that technology can achieve what regulation alone cannot: the speed, scale and adaptability required to counter modern financial crime.
Such sentiment marks a decisive moment in the evolution of financial governance. The industry’s confidence gap is driving a transformation from reactive compliance to proactive intelligence, where technology enables institutions to anticipate rather than merely respond to threats. This approach redefines prevention as an integrated part of innovation, not an afterthought imposed by regulation.
The findings, drawn from 1,618 senior decision-makers across 51 countries, provide clear evidence that technology adoption now outpaces regulatory development in addressing financial crime risks. As these trends converge, the payments sector stands at a turning point — one where the ability to harness AI and data-driven insight will determine not only compliance success but long-term competitive strength.
This section outlines the basis of the research behind the Financial Crime 360 findings. Insights were drawn from 1,618 senior decision-makers across 51 countries, representing payments providers, financial institutions, and technology firms. With nearly half of respondents at C-suite or director level, the data offers a credible and globally balanced view of attitudes towards financial crime prevention, regulatory confidence, and technology adoption.
Survey respondents represent senior decision-makers across the payments ecosystem. Leadership roles dominate participation: 31% hold VP, director or head positions, whilst 28% serve as managers, and 18.4% occupy C-level or founder roles. This seniority mix ensures respondents possess strategic authority and procurement influence to drive technology adoption.
When rating confidence in current financial crime policies on a ten-point scale, the industry demonstrates considerable polarisation. The distribution shows 43% scoring five or below (low confidence), whilst 42% score seven or above (high confidence), with only 15% at score six representing the narrow middle ground. Mean confidence scores 6.18—marginally above the midpoint—masking foundational disagreement about regulatory effectiveness.
Industry representation reflects the breadth of the payments ecosystem. Financial crime and compliance services comprise the largest cohort at 21.3%, followed by technology and solution providers at 16.4% and banking and account providers at 11.4%. Professional services, non-bank financial institutions, cross-border payments, and government regulatory bodies each represent 5–8% of respondents, alongside smaller representations from the card industry, payments industry suppliers, and digital assets sectors. This cross-sector composition underscores that confidence gaps and technology demand span the entire payments landscape.
This section summarises the core insights from the Financial Crime 360 data, showing how industry leaders view financial crime prevention, regulatory confidence, and technology adoption. The findings reveal divided opinions on regulation but strong alignment around artificial intelligence as the leading solution to emerging financial crime threats.
The intersection of attendee interests reveals how leading organisations are restructuring their approach to financial crime. Whilst 75% focus on financial crime is expected at this conference, the overlap with cross-border payments (38%), digital currencies (34%) and open banking (33%) indicates that successful organisations no longer treat financial crime as a standalone compliance function.
Leading payments firms are embedding financial crime prevention directly into product development and innovation roadmaps. This integration approach—where compliance becomes a feature rather than a friction point—represents a fundamental shift from reactive monitoring to proactive design. The data suggests that organisations achieving the best outcomes are those dissolving traditional boundaries between compliance, product and technology teams.
The challenge hierarchy provides actionable insight for resource allocation. Whilst financial crime leads concerns at 21%, the relatively lower ranking of regulatory compliance (11%) and digital transformation (6%) suggests that throwing more compliance resources at the problem yields diminishing returns. Instead, the 24% identifying AI as their biggest opportunity signal that competitive advantage comes from technological leverage rather than expanded compliance teams.
This presents a clear strategic directive: payments leaders should redirect investment from traditional compliance expansion towards technology-enabled solutions that scale across multiple risk vectors. The organisations that transform financial crime prevention from a cost centre into a competitive differentiator will be those that achieve this integration earliest.
Confronted with regulatory confidence gaps and escalating financial crime threats, industry leaders demonstrate substantial alignment on the solution: AI and machine learning (ML) technologies.
When identifying the biggest opportunities for the payments industry, AI dominates all responses. The technology captures 23% of all opportunity mentions (380 respondents), compared to 7% for digital currencies (115 respondents) and 5% for cross-border payments (82 respondents). AI receives 3.3 times more mentions than the second-place technology and seven times more mentions than the fourth-place opportunity.
This AI consensus spans all market segments without exception. Budget holders, influencers, compliance professionals, technology providers and financial services organisations all demonstrate 71-78% interest in financial crime solutions powered by AI. No segment dissents from this technology-first narrative.
The convergence is significant: whilst the industry divides on regulatory effectiveness, it unites behind technology as the path forward. This suggests that payments leaders view AI not as a complement to regulation but as a necessary evolution beyond traditional compliance approaches.
The data reveals a systemic challenge across the entire payments ecosystem. Confidence in regulatory effectiveness ranges from 5.99 to 6.53 on a 10-point scale, whilst preparedness for regulatory change spans 5.86 to 6.25. Notably, even the highest-scoring segments—Financial Services at 6.53 confidence and 6.25 preparedness—fall short of strong readiness.
These moderate scores persist across all cohorts: budget holders (5.99/5.99), influencers (6.18/5.91), compliance and risk functions (6.43/6.0), and technology providers (6.29/5.86). This consistency indicates structural gaps rather than isolated concerns, reflecting the 43% expressing low confidence in UK regulation and 46% feeling unprepared for regulatory changes.
The universal interest in AI solutions—crossing all segments—signals that technology now represents baseline market necessity rather than competitive advantage. Combined with audience composition (49% at C-suite or director level, 18% explicit budget holders, and 38% in risk and compliance functions), these respondents possess both strategic authority and procurement power to drive technology adoption. Market opportunity crystallises around bridging these confidence and preparedness deficits through AI-enabled financial crime prevention capabilities.
For payments leaders, the research indicates three critical considerations. Regulatory modernisation requires urgent collaboration between policymakers and industry; the confidence gap cannot close through traditional evolution alone. AI-powered solutions now represent industry best practice. Technology investment transitions from strategic advantage to operational necessity—organisations unable to deliver AI-enabled financial crime prevention face talent, capital, and competitive disadvantage. Partnership models between regulators, incumbents and innovators become essential, bridging the gap between regulatory requirements and industry expectations through collaborative oversight.
The Financial Crime 360 data presents unambiguous market signals: current regulatory approaches to financial crime fail to inspire industry confidence, whilst AI emerges as the consensus solution. This represents neither temporary frustration nor regional variation but fundamental structural change in how the payments industry approaches compliance and risk.
The implications extend beyond individual organisations. As AI adoption accelerates, the gap between technology leaders and laggards will widen. Organisations investing now in AI-powered financial crime prevention will establish competitive advantages that compound over time. Those waiting for regulatory clarity may find themselves permanently disadvantaged.
For UK payments leaders, the message is clear: technology adoption can no longer wait for regulatory permission. The market has spoken through 1,618 qualified decision-makers across 51 countries, all seeking technology-enabled alternatives to traditional compliance. The opportunity—valued in billions across global markets—belongs to those who act decisively.
The payments industry stands at an inflection point. Financial crime threats evolve faster than regulations can adapt. Technology offers solutions that transcend traditional boundaries. Leaders must choose between waiting for regulatory evolution or driving industry transformation through innovation. The data suggests the choice has already been made.
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