Criminal Networks Leverage Technological Advancements to Drive Fraud Losses of Over Half a Trillion Dollars Worldwide
To Accelerate Efforts to Combat Fraud and Scams, Nasdaq Verafin to Announce Pledge to Catalyze Private Sector Collaboration with UN Office on Drugs and Crime
NEW YORK, March 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nasdaq Verafin has released its 2026 Global Financial Crime Report, the second edition of a comprehensive research initiative that provides insights into the scope and scale of financial crime worldwide. Combining proprietary data modeling, a survey of more than 500 financial crime professionals, and in-depth interviews with senior executives, this report provides the company's most rigorous analysis of industry threats, priorities, and opportunities to date.
The 2026 Global Financial Crime Report found that since 2023 illicit financial activity has surged by $1.3 trillion, pushing the scale of the global financial crime epidemic to an estimated $4.4 trillion. With a compound annual growth rate of 19.2% over two years, this growth in the scope, scale, and evolution of financial crime fundamentally threatens the integrity of the financial system, powering insidious and destabilizing crimes such as human trafficking and terrorism. As trillions of dollars in illicit funds flowed through the financial system, there was significant growth across every measured typology, with illicit flows reaching:
- $1.1 trillion in drug trafficking activity, with annualized growth of 17.1%
- $528.5 billion in human trafficking, with annualized growth of 23.5%
- $16.2 billion in terrorist financing, with annualized growth of 18.8%
In addition, fraud scams and bank fraud schemes led to $579.4 billion in losses globally. Notably, losses from fraud scams are growing more than twice the rate of bank fraud, reaching $62 billion and growing at a compound annual growth rate of 19.3% over the last two years. Powering this dramatic rise in scam losses is the widespread use of AI by criminal networks, who leverage advances in technology to exploit vulnerabilities in the financial system. The speed at which this new threat has saturated the market is alarming - 90% of the financial crime professionals surveyed in this report noted an increase in AI-driven attacks at their institution over the past two years.
"We are currently in the midst of a full-blown financial crime crisis, powered by criminal networks that are leveraging AI to super-charge scam playbooks and operating with the scale and coordination of multinational corporations," said Stephanie Champion, Executive Vice President and Head of Nasdaq Verafin. "While AI has emerged as a key tool for criminals, the industry recognizes the potential of the technology to become its most valuable asset in the fight against financial crime. Cutting-edge technology, combined with improved public-private and private-private collaboration creates a network effect, magnifying the reach of our collective efforts and helping remove criminals from the financial system for good."
Financial institutions are on the front lines of the fight against financial crime, but they cannot defeat criminal threats alone. The scale and complexity of today's crisis require collective action across every sector impacted by the financial crime ecosystem. Embedded throughout the 2026 Global Financial Crime Report are spotlights on organizations demonstrating coordinated action in the fight against financial crime. The organizations highlighted in this report offer a blueprint for what successful collaboration looks like between the public and private sector, as well as between financial institutions and across industries.
To further advance collaborative efforts in the fight against financial crime, Nasdaq Verafin is announcing a pledge to support the efforts of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to combat financial crime and fraud by mobilizing collective action within the private sector. Nasdaq Verafin, with the substantive contribution of UNODC, will host a series of convenings of private sector leaders at the center of the fight against financial crime, beginning with a special in-person summit on October 20th at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York. The convenings will include workshops and roundtables focused on emerging threats and actionable steps for improving cross-sector collaboration to fight fraud, scams, and money laundering.
The 2026 Global Financial Crime Report was produced by Nasdaq Verafin in collaboration with Celent and Oliver Wyman, leveraging a custom data model developed from public and private sources to calculate scale of global crime.
To read the full report and learn more about Nasdaq Verafin's pledge to fight financial crime, please visit: https://verafin.com/nasdaq-verafin-global-financial-crime-report.
About Nasdaq Verafin
Nasdaq Verafin provides Financial Crime Management Technology solutions for Fraud Detection and Management, AML/CFT Compliance and Management, High Risk Customer Management, Sanctions Screening and Management, and Information Sharing. More than 2,750 financial institutions, representing $11 trillion in collective assets, use Nasdaq Verafin to prevent fraud and strengthen AML/CFT efforts. Visit www.verafin.com to learn more.
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