Financial Crime

Financial crime is evolving faster than the systems designed to stop it. Where regulators once focused mainly on anti-money-laundering (AML), they now play a key role in turning the tide against a wide array of related financial crime — fraud, scams, cyber-theft and illicit finance at global scale. Powered by digital platforms and generative AI, these crimes now form an illicit economy roughly the size of a G7 nation¹, driving unprecedented harm to consumers, markets and public trust.

Yet despite hundreds of billions spent on compliance, less than 1% of financial crime is detected². Fraud and scams are among the fastest-growing threats worldwide, exploiting outdated tools, fragmented oversight and obstacles to data sharing. At AIR, we work across sectors to modernize how financial crime is prevented, detected and disrupted — protecting people and strengthening systemic resilience.

WHITE PAPER • Digital Finance & Illicit Financial Flows & Corruption: Trends & Opportunities

As digital finance scales globally, risks evolve. This paper explores how mobile money, open banking, crypto assets and stablecoins affect illicit financial flows, and what regulators can do to respond without undermining inclusion.

PODCAST • We Can Beat Financial Crime, Part 1

Financial crime is a G7‑sized economy. Carole House, Ari Redbord and Matt Van Buskirk join Jo Ann to expose how AI has turbocharged scams and why the AML system is failing — and to chart a new path powered by trust tech and real‑time collaboration.

EVENT • Battlefront: An Immersive Experience to Fight Fraud

AIR hosted “Battlefront: Fraud in the Age of AI,” an interactive simulation event addressing the rise of AI-enabled and AI-driven fraud. Over two days, experts and stakeholders explored how AI can amplify human deception or operate independently to outsmart defenses.

EVENT • West Africa Payments & Fraud Policy Sprint

AIR, in collaboration with the West African Monetary Institute, hosted a two-day Policy Sprint in Lagos, Nigeria, focused on developing policy-driven solutions to combat fraud and thereby enhance the safety of digital payment systems in West Africa.

PODCAST • Financial Crime & National Security: DARPA’s A3ML Program

DARPA’s David R. Dewhurst joins Jo Ann to explain A3ML, an audacious plan to make money laundering too expensive to exist. Hear how new graph algorithms, incentives and privacy‑first design could turn the tide on illicit finance.

INITIATIVE • AIR Program to Combat Global Financial Fraud Through Innovation & Collaboration

AIR’s Global Fraud Program combats financial fraud through innovation & collaboration. It prioritizes consumer protection, education, policy, and technology, fostering a global community to empower regulators, develop solutions, and enhance consumer safeguards.

TECHSPRINT • Protecting Children from Online Predators

The Protecting Children TechSprint focused on combating the purchase of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) through the use of crypto analytics. It was featured in Fast Company magazine’s 2021 World Changing Ideas awards.

BLOG • How to Arm Anti-Corruption Fighters with Better Data Tools

AIR held the first of multiple TechSprints on new technologies to shine a light on global corruption. The events, held in concert with the State and Treasury departments, grew out of a White House initiative to promote democracy.

TECHSPRINT • TechSprint to Combat Digital Payment Fraud in West Africa

The Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR) hosted a virtual TechSprint focused on detecting and combating digital payment fraud in West Africa.

TECHSPRINT • AIR Partners with State, Treasury on Summit for Democracy TechSprint

The Anti-corruption Solutions through Emerging Technologies (ASET) TechSprint explored how technology can aid the fight against corruption. AIR ran the event, which grew out of the Summit for Democracy, with the State and Treasury departments.

PODCAST • Optimizing Use of Encrypted Data is Key to Thwarting Financial Crime

Ellison Anne Williams, CEO of Enveil, sits down with Jo Ann to explain how homomorphic encryption allows financial institutions and authorities to share anti-money laundering information without compromising privacy.

NEWS • AIR TechSprint Highlighted as Achievement in ‘Innovating and Partnering to Combat Corruption’

The White House announced select achievements during the “Year of Action” following the U.S. Summit for Democracy in December 2021, including AIR’s Anti-Corruption Solutions through Emerging Technologies (ASET) TechSprint.

TECHSPRINT • AIR Runs First U.S. Regulatory TechSprint to Explore AML Solutions

The Anti-Money Laundering TechSprint, held in cooperation with the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, focused on using privacy-enhancing technologies to fight financial crimes that aid human traffickers, drug cartels and other bad actors.

PODCAST • AIR’s CEO Featured on Fintech Insider Podcast about Financial Crime

Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO of the Alliance of Innovative Regulation, was a guest on a recent episode of the podcast, participating in discussions about the state of financial crime, the rise of crypto and how to balance innovation with security.

WHITE PAPER • AIR and Google Release Paper on Applying Model Risk Management Guidance to AI

The paper argues that MRM guidance, given its broad, principles-based approach, continues to provide an appropriate framework for assessing financial institutions’ management of model risk, even for Risk AI/ML models.

Barefoot, Jo Ann, Carole House, Ari Redbord, and Matthew Van Buskirk. “We Can Beat Financial Crime Pt.1: Carole House, Ari Redbord, and Matt Van Buskirk.” Barefoot Innovation Podcast, January 9, 2026. https://regulationinnovation.org/podcast/we-can-beat-financial-crime-pt-1-carole-house-ari-redbord-and-matt-van-buskirk/. ↩︎
“Fact Sheet: Money-Laundering.” Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, n.d. ↩︎

Financial Crime

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