Cyber, organised crime and human trafficking now top financial crime concerns as firms struggle to keep pace, ComplyAdvantage data shows

 ComplyAdvantage, the leader in financial crime risk management, has today published new global research revealing financial institutions are struggling to keep pace with the speed and sophistication of modern AI-enabled criminal networks. The findings show that cybercrime (54%), organised crime (37%), and human trafficking (33%) are areas where firms feel most exposed and are calling for more regulatory guidance.

Captured in The State of Financial Crime 2026 Report, ComplyAdvantage has surveyed over 600 global C-suite and senior compliance leaders within financial institutions to provide a comprehensive analysis of the latest FinCrime threats, trends and prevention methods. It shows growing organisational vulnerability as the gap between criminal capability and institutional defence widens, creating windows for illicit transactions and human exploitation to move undetected.  

Threats on all fronts  

Over the next year, firms expect a surge in sophisticated crimes, led by high-end laundering (41%), trade-based money laundering (38%), terrorist financing through crowdfunding (30%) and money mulling (26%). 

This rising complexity is being layered onto a market already facing a drain on resources.  Respondents confirm that the bulk of their capacity is being spent addressing threats related to cybercrime (28%), organised criminal groups (17%), terrorist financing (15%), and human trafficking (13%). Without a robust, holistic AML platform to alleviate these existing burdens, institutions will struggle to pivot toward the more severe, AI-driven threats on the horizon. 

“Human trafficking is not only a serious human rights abuse, but is an illicit business model driven by financial gain,” said Rebekah Lisgarten, Chief Executive Officer, STOP THE TRAFFIK. “Traffickers rely on legitimate financial systems to launder their illicit proceeds, which means financial institutions are directly positioned to disrupt this global issue. Implementing faster, intelligence-led controls that cut off traffickers’ ability to profit is one of the most powerful ways to prevent exploitation before it occurs.” 

Identifying persistent flaws in the chain  

The risks are being exacerbated by ongoing limitations to organisational defences. Almost all research respondents (99%) acknowledged limitations in their ability to detect financial crime, pointing to failings in sanctions and watchlist screening (23%), siloed datasets (22%) and lack of real-time visibility into risks (21%).   

The report shows that the disparity between advanced AI expectations and deployment is also causing financial institutions to fall behind. Despite all respondents (100%) experiencing or expecting positive outcomes from agentic or predictive AI, just one-third (33%) currently use the technology for customer screening and transaction monitoring (32%). Furthermore, over 40% report not having a fully established and mature AI assurance programme in place, underscoring that many firms have yet to meet the governance benchmarks required for widespread AI deployment.

The ramifications of this gap between AI expectations and effective execution are becoming increasingly evident in day-to-day operations. While 61% of firms see AI-powered real-time monitoring as their primary AML defense, the operational reality remains heavily manual and reactive. This disconnect is most visible in remediation timelines, where 89% of institutions reported taking up to 30 minutes to resolve a single transaction monitoring alert. Such a significant lag suggests that while the initial detection may be branded as “real-time,” the resolution process remains a major bottleneck that allows potential illicit activity to progress while compliance teams struggle to keep pace with volume.

“Criminal networks do not care how advanced your AML roadmap is, or whether regulation is six months or six years away. They move money and victims at speed, and every crack in the wall helps them to do it,” said Iain Armstrong, Executive Director, Financial Crime Compliance Strategy, ComplyAdvantage. “If defences are fragmented or slow, fraud scales, money mules multiply, and human exploitation becomes easier to hide. Financial institutions have a responsibility to close these gaps now by building faster, intelligence-led systems that can operate at the same speed as criminals.” 

Read the full report here: The State of Financial Crime 2026