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Global Fincrime Operations Trends in 2025

Global Fincrime Operations Trends in 2025

Fenergo’s latest research on financial crime operations at global banks, asset managers, and asset servicers uncovers:

  • What’s driving AI investment
  • Where firms are stumbling​
  • ​How AI is transforming financial crime operations​

This exclusive research surveyed 600 senior financial executives across the UK, the US, and Singapore.​

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Industry Trends at a Glance

Respondents for our survey were representatives of financial institutions, split betweeninvestment banks, commercial banks, corporate banks, asset managers, and assetservicers. Our survey covered three key economies - the UK, the US, and Singapore - with responses from 600 senior decision-makers working in risk, compliance, and operations roles.

Despite investment in resources and technology, financial institutions are still struggling to streamline client/investor onboarding, which is negatively impacting business. The average abandonment rate in 2025 is just over 10%, meaning one in ten clients cancel their application before completion.

Financial Crime Drives AI Investment

Tackling financial crime has become the number one priority for AI investment in 2025, as financial institutions (FIs) seek to mitigate the threat of increasingly sophisticated crime and tightening regulations.

​​This reflects the global trend of rising sanctions measures triggered by geopolitical tensions and firms are under pressure to bolster systems and processes to remain compliant.

Adoption of Artificial Intelligence is Now Mainstream

In a recent study of UK and US FIs by Fenergo in collaboration with Chartis Research, 47% are already using AI in compliance operations and six percent are using agentic AI. ​​

In this survey, most firms reported that their staff are using some form of AI to automate labor-intensive AML/KYC processes.

​Automation of AML/KYC Processes

FIs complete tens of thousands of periodic reviews on average per year to keep on top of financial crime risk and client risk profile changes. This emphasizes the scale of the periodic review workload weighing on a large proportion of FIs today.

​Clunky Onboarding is Costing Billions in Lost Revenue

Our research shows that financial institutions are spending tens, even hundreds of millions on average on financial crime operations, yet lingering inefficiencies in client onboarding are driving clients away.​​

Across the three economies we studied, the number of FIs report losing clients due to slow onboarding processes rose slightly from the 63% reported across sectors in 2024, and way above the 2023 average of 48%.

Operational Costs for AML/KYC remain high

Financial institutions globally are spending large sums of money on KYC/AML activities. Much of this cost is attributed to antiquated and manual systems and ways of working that frustrate employees and clients alike. ​

According to a report by McKinsey, banks typically assign 10-15% of their total full-time workforce to KYC and AML alone.

To Build or To Buy? That is The Question

When it comes to technology adoption within compliance, the most common set up is the in-house model, with more than a third opting to fully build and maintain solutions in-house.​​

Firms that either use a business process management (BPM) solution, rely on in-house, or adopt a hybrid approach cite high maintenance costs, complexity of use, and regulatory adaptability as key challenges. Only one percent of these firms globally reported no tech stack challenges.

Solutions Tailored to Your Organization’s Operational Challenges

Fenergo’s clients are out-performing their peers when it comes to operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and client experience. Find out how, and by exactly how much.

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