Furthermore, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that while the percentage of people falling victim to scams dropped, there have been more scam attempts than ever, with bank card fraud being the most common type of scam during the 2021-2022 financial year.

The financial crime landscape has never been more complex, and financial criminals are increasing their funding, resources, and level of sophistication in operations every day. Simply continuing with ‘business as usual’ or attempting to counter these threats with increased manual processes or scaled teams will not be enough. Organisations, including financial institutions, gaming and wagering companies, and more, need a holistic approach to preparing for fraud and financial crime, and need visibility into threats that enables accurate and fast counteractions that do not damage their customers’ experiences.

Consumers expect and rely on businesses to be resilient to financial crime

Businesses and consumers today are challenged with juggling rising inflation, the rising cost of living, and rising interest rates. Simply sustaining their finances to make ends meet is a challenge and priority for many Australians. This leaves little time or mental capacity for identifying or reporting financial crimes. In fact, the ABS found more than 40 per cent of the most serious scams and identity theft incidents of the last financial year went unreported.

Consequently, as the threats of money laundering, fraud and other financial crimes continues to evolve, organisations need to be prepared for the worst. Leveraging the latest technology solutions, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities is critical, though the landscape is now too vast and complex for organisations to have a separate system to address each financial crime threat. Businesses need to be able to confidently plan ahead and operate with conviction, rather than constantly looking over their shoulder for potential threats they have missed or criminal activity that has evaded one of their systems.

This is why an end-to-end approach and holistic view of risks is key to preventing threats and keeping businesses and consumers protected. This approach, known as FRAML or convergence, is how organisations will be able to prepare for future threats, while understanding the best ways to minimise the impact of current risks.

Automation is normalised in customer interactions, businesses need to keep pace

Instant financial transactions, superannuation contributions, online bets or trades, loan approvals, and other businesses transactions are increasingly becoming a normal part of consumers’ day-to-day activities, and their pace of digital interactions is only growing. While this has the benefits of higher productivity and ease of using services, it also means consumers are moving fast enough to unconsciously overlook the signs of fraud, leaving businesses exposed to an expanding range of threats.

This shift means organisations need to transition away from siloed fraud and AML teams and technology solutions, and move towards an integrated approach. Machine learning as it is used in the GBG Compliance Platform, for example, can help FIs detect suspicious behaviour and AML threats in real-time and with high accuracy. This enables businesses to ‘learn’ from previously identified false positives and avoid future misleading alerts on the same individual, ensuring both trusted customers and bad actors are identified quickly and appropriately.

With this multi-tenancy SaaS offering that automates the detection of fraudulent behavioural patterns using contextual data, businesses can bolster their AML and fraud defences. Despite the uncertain financial and economic climate amid the growing threats of money launders, fraudsters and financial criminals, this approach equips businesses to better and instantaneously stay protected, while providing the visibility and confidence to scale and move forward.

For more information about GBG Compliance Platform, click here.

Carol Chris is Regional General Manager for Australia and New Zealand, GBG