Growing concerns over cybersecurity and regulatory challenges among 600 finance-related professionals expected to spill over to the current year

Based on a Sep–Oct 2024 survey of 600 respondents* on their sentiments around financial crime and cybersecurity/fraud trends, a financial and risk advisory firm has announced some of its findings.

First, 68% of respondents who were financial services professionals had indicated expecting financial crime risk to increase in 2025 and identified cybersecurity as the biggest driver of exposure.

Second, 49% of the above respondents had cited expecting to invest in AI solutions as part of their efforts to tackle financial crime.

Other findings

Third, 20% of respondents (previously 37% in a similar survey in 2023) indicated their belief that AI has had a “very positive” effect on their financial crime compliance framework. Also:

• 27% of respondents’ organizations were cited to have AI and machine learning as an established part of their financial crime compliance programs, exceeding 2023 levels (24%), all things being equal between the two years’ survey methods
• Respondents had cited that AI was primarily being used to identify suspicious behavior (63%), for network analysis (54%) and for identifying risk signals (44%)
• 55% of respondents had cited expecting enforcement action against financial crime to increase, and 59% cited seeing corporate transparency requirements changing within the next year
• 49% of respondents had indicated that keeping up with regulatory changes was the biggest challenge in sanctions compliance, comparted to 34% in a similar 2023 survey
• 39% of respondents who were senior financial professionals had indicated that they were “very confident” in their organization’s sanctions screening capabilities, with those in the UK (34%) trailing the global average
• 37% of respondents’ organizations were indicated to “screen entirely in-house, using a third party” (34%) or to use a hybrid approach (28%)
• 33% of respondents had indicated that they were “very prepared” to address geopolitical risks over the next 12 months, with 38% citing they were “very confident” in their financial compliance program’s ability to detect emerging geopolitical threats. Among those that had indicated they were less than “very confident” in their program’s ability to assess their supply chains for threats, 56% of global respondents had identified cybercrime as the biggest expected challenge to their programs in 2025. This was followed by political instability (35%) and geopolitical risk (26%)
• 58% of respondents from the insurance sector had expressed concern over potential new economic and financial sanctions

According to David Lewis, Managing Director, Kroll, the firm that commissioned the survey, “businesses are expected to stay abreast of a variety of risk factors, but this becomes increasingly difficult the faster that illicit actors develop new tricks and tools. Firms that can best direct efforts to meet this changing landscape will be the ones that succeed, even as the outlook for financial crime grows more concerning by the year.”

*including CEOs, chief compliance officers, general counsel, chief risk officers and other financial crime compliance professionals, and also executives from the US and the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, Scandinavia (Norway and Sweden), parts of the Asia Pacific region (Australia, India, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore) and the Middle East/Africa (United Arab Emirates and South Africa), as well as offshore financial centers — the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Jersey