EDITORIAL FINANCIAL CRIMES
Harnessing AI to combat financial crimes
Thanks to the availability of advanced technology, financial crimes are becoming more sophisticated and complex. From trade-based money laundering and human trafficking to GenAI-enhanced scams, the scale of financial crime today is unprecedented. Fortunately, artificial intelligence( AI), when used responsibly and ethically, can revolutionise the fight against these financial crimes.
By Stephanie Ora, Global Lead for Financial Crimes Analytics, SAS
Of course, AI is not a silver bullet. Even though it provides organisations with significant opportunities, the technology must be carefully managed. Businesses need to balance AI’ s potential to combat financial crimes with ethical responsibility, transparency and governance.
Fighting fire with fire
Central to the ability of AI to detect financial crime is its capacity to process and analyse massive amounts of data faster and more efficiently than any human operator. Traditional methods of fraud detection and anti-money laundering( AML) often rely on high-maintenance rules and time-consuming manual processes which could otherwise be used for tasks requiring human decisions. For its part, AI enables institutions to effectively identify suspicious and complex financial crime patterns and proactively protect consumers through early warnings.
For example, AI-powered tools can dynamically segment customer profiles, detect anomalies in transactions, and even identify hidden relationships within complex networks. These capabilities help uncover schemes like trade-based money laundering and transnational criminal activities. Furthermore, integrating additional elements such as entity resolution and network analytics means financial institutions can gain a more comprehensive view of the risk landscape. In doing so, they can pinpoint threats and systemic weak points more effectively.
AI also offers significant
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