2025 was a year of sweeping change in financial crime compliance, with the new Trump administration reshaping the regulatory landscape with reforms that sent shockwaves across global markets. For 2026 one theme is already clear: The pace of change is accelerating, not stabilizing.
Here, I examine key trends likely to impact financial institutions’ compliance programs and the common barriers that may prevent strategies from keeping pace.
Enduring Challenges: War in Ukraine
It will come as no surprise that the Russia-Ukraine war will continue to define sanctions compliance. Even in view of peace talks, the situation remains volatile, with actions on the ground not always matching diplomatic promises.
Putin’s shadow fleet of oil tankers, used to circumvent sanctions, has drawn increasing scrutiny – and will continue to do so. Additionally, the nature of goods fueling the conflict is evolving. Dual-use goods like first-person view (FPV) drones and computer components are increasingly diverted for military purposes.
Financial institutions will need to factor these items into trade finance and sanctions risk assessments, monitoring transactions and conducting due diligence where needed.
Growing Threats: Human Trafficking
Beyond geopolitical tensions, organized crime continues to expand its footprint. Human trafficking, in particular, represents a rapidly escalating threat. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) reported a 25% increase in identified trafficking victims in 2024. By mid-2025, INTERPOL had warned that human-trafficking-driven scam centers were spreading across borders.
Becki LaPorte of FinScan
These trends show no sign of slowing down in 2026, especially as criminals weaponize artificial intelligence-scale deception.
From a financial crime perspective, human trafficking, whether for scam compounds or forced servitude, is a predicate offense for money laundering. Financial institutions must sharpen their ability to identify associated transactions and conduct enhanced due diligence on high-risk sectors. Traditionally, this meant industries like construction or agriculture. Today, it may also include all center operations that disguise scam compounds and fraud factories.
Another disturbing trend is the rise in sextortion. Like other forms of human trafficking, it is intertwined with larger financial crime enterprises. Trafficking of children is occurring without the child leaving their own home. Although the financial demands criminals make are not high, the perpetrators are often interested in the images and the child’s information. Widespread distribution causes the children shame and embarrassment, making them vulnerable to suicide as they struggle to cope with what is happening.
A Rapidly Changing Payments Landscape
Financial institutions also face the challenge of adapting to a payments ecosystem evolving at breakneck speed. Real-time payments – popular with both consumers and criminals – will continue their global expansion in 2026 with systems such as Barbados’ BiMPay and Canada’s Real-Time Rails (RTR).
Real-time payments mean real-time compliance. Financial institutions must ensure screening systems can support account-name verification, fraud detection, sanctions checks and more within seconds.
New private payment rails are also accelerating. Digital wallets like Cash App and Venmo are surging in adoption, including in historically cash-based markets. Indonesia is a prime example, with multiple fast-growing wallet providers and a new Tourist Travel Pack launched in 2025. These wallets offer customer convenience but also appeal to criminals seeking less-monitored rails.
And then there is blockchain. Following President Trump’s signing of the GENIUS Act, industry expectations are high that blockchain will transform payments by 2030. Financial institutions must begin preparing now by involving compliance early in any stablecoin or crypto-related initiatives to understand and mitigate emerging risks.
Identity Comes to the Fore
Identity verification will take on new urgency. It has long been a pillar of financial crime prevention, but the rise of digital-first services and AI-enabled deepfakes has thrust digital identity back into the spotlight.
Striking the right balance between more robust identity checks and individual privacy expectations remains challenging. This balance varies widely across countries. In the U.K., for example, late-2025 proposals to introduce a digital ID met with strong pushback. In contrast, the Nordics continue to lead with models such as BankID, allowing customers to securely authenticate across organizations with a single identity.
The Need for Information Sharing
Siloed data remains one of the most entrenched obstacles to fighting financial crime, across borders and even within departments within the same institution. But momentum toward collaboration is growing.
Identity is one area of progress, with a new alliance among Nordic and Baltic ministers on digital identity wallets. Broader collaboration is also emerging through initiatives such as Stop Scams UK, which unites financial institutions, telecom providers and technology platforms.
Internally, the lines between anti-money laundering, fraud and cybersecurity continue to blur. Historically distinct functions with different cultures and toolsets increasingly share a common mission: customer protection. This convergence will accelerate in 2026, transforming how teams share intelligence, coordinate investigations and manage risk.
AI-Driven Innovation
AI will continue to shape compliance technology in 2026, but only where data quality and governance are strong enough to support it. Models must remain explainable, repeatable and grounded in accurate, well-structured data.
Key areas of advancement include risk identification and data analytics to strengthen risk-based approaches. AI agents may also improve operational efficiency by clearing low-level alerts or pre-filling suspicious activity reports (SARs). Investigations could be enhanced by accelerating information gathering across fragmented sources. For investigators who spend significant time stitching together data, the return on investment could be transformative.
Barriers to Change
For all this momentum, the road to digitization is rarely smooth. Global economic volatility makes budgets tighter, and compliance frequently struggles to secure investment unless driven by regulatory pressure.
Under the Trump administration, AML frameworks continue to evolve, but the more pressing challenge is growing regulatory divergence across countries. The U.S. trend toward deregulation contrasts sharply with developments in other regions, complicating global program design.
Risk aversion is another hurdle. Many institutions still rely on broad, static programs designed to avoid risk at all costs. But in today’s environment, standing still is itself a risk. Without revisiting assumptions and embracing modernization, traditional institutions could lose share to more agile competitors.
A true risk-based approach is critical. Many organizations get bogged down in sprawling risk reviews and check-the-box processes that consume time without strengthening risk mitigation. Bolstering risk assessments and ensuring their findings drive real action is essential for 2026 and beyond.
Compounding Trends
The 2020s have been marked by escalating geopolitical instability, and 2026 will be no different. The Ukraine conflict will remain a major driver of compliance activity, but alongside it are rising the megatrends of human trafficking, payment rail transformation and renewed emphasis on digital identity.
To thrive, compliance leaders must remain vigilant, continuously reassess risk and adopt forward-looking strategies. As risk grows more complex, institutions that embrace a dynamic risk-based approach, strengthen their assessments and explore emerging technologies will be best positioned to navigate what comes next.
Becki LaPorte, a Certified Financial Crime Specialist (CFCS) and Financial Intelligence Specialist (FIS), is a recognized expert in AML and fraud compliance who now serves as Principal, Strategy & Innovation, at FinScan, an Innovative Systems solution.
Topics: AML & Fraud, Regulation & Compliance, Cybersecurity