Unit21 has provided an overview of the current and future impacts of fraud and AML across banks and fintechs in its third annual State of Fraud and AML report. Following this announcement, the study also identifies several measures that fraud and AML teams are taking in order to manage that impact, such as real-time monitoring services and faster rule deployment strategies.

Through the launch of this report, Unit21 aims to provide some insights into the many issues and opportunities that are in the industry, as well as provide space for more collaborative, transparent, and frank conversations on how to combat bad actors. In addition, the company will continue to focus on meeting the needs, preferences, and demands of clients and users in an ever-evolving market, while prioritising the process of remaining compliant with the regulatory requirements and laws of the industry as well. More information on the State of Fraud and AML report More than 350 representatives across banks, credit unions, and fintechs were surveyed about their attitudes and behaviors towards the current fraud and AML activity.

At the same time, participants also responded to questions regarding the financial impact of fraud on their organisations, as well as current and future prevention measures they have implemented. The State of Fraud and AML report found an increase in scams, including check fraud, romance fraud, credit card fraud, and phishing attacks. Multiple respondents agreed that time is an issue as well, as the fraudulent activity has increased while deploying prevention measures has remained a slow procedure.

Businesses that have implemented real-time monitoring solutions also show significant improvements in alerts and investigations. The survey addresses the recent trend of combining fraud with AML teams in order to reduce operational inefficiencies, as well as the manner in which companies that combined teams have seen improvements in overall fraud prevention and shared resources. Significant findings from the report also include scams (with 14% of the respondents reporting a 50% or more growth in scam detection over the past year), check fraud (with 30% of banks reporting an alarming 25-75% increase in check fraud in the last 12 months), FrAML (with 71% of respondents seeing a significant improvement in detection and prevention when fraud and AML are combined into one team with shared resources), and rule deployment (with 32% of respondents taking more than a month to deploy new rules for fraud and AML detection).

At the same time, it also showed alert investigations (with 34% of respondents reporting an increase in the time spent per AML alert over the past 12 months) and real-time monitoring (with 51% of respondents seeing improvements in fraud detection and prevention when using real-time monitoring solutions). .