Fraud Risk in 2026: What Practitioners Are Prioritising

Based on discussions and live polling at our recent Fraud Risk Deep Dive, here is what fraud risk leaders are focused on right now:

• Moving from reactive to preventative - embedding behavioural-led controls across the full customer journey
• Real-time payment intervention- faster holds, smarter risk scoring, and instant callbacks to stay ahead of attackers
• Enterprise-wide data sharing - breaking down silos between fraud, cyber, and AML for joined-up threat analysis
• AI and ML maturity - moving beyond legacy systems toward genuinely agile, intelligent detection
• Extending controls beyond the bank - tackling client-side vulnerabilities through education, governance uplift, and shared responsibility

Fraud is no longer a problem any single institution can solve alone. It is globalised, industrialised, and evolving faster than most organisations can respond. The findings from our recent practitioner community make clear that the next phase of fraud defence requires collective action, smarter technology, and a fundamental rethink of where controls sit and who owns them.

AI-based behavioural tools are gaining real traction. 57% of attendees said they had already delivered meaningful improvements to fraud detection. But technology alone is not enough. 38% of firms do not yet feel their fraud risk management is fit for the future, and 66% identify technology integration as the biggest barrier to bringing fraud and financial crime functions together.

Corporate payment fraud is increasingly a client-side problem, with 38% of firms reporting client email compromise as the most common origin point. Looking ahead, 36% plan their biggest defensive investment in faster payment-intervention capabilities, with 28% prioritising enterprise-wide fraud, cyber, and AML data sharing.

Convergence of fraud and financial crime functions is progressing. 88% of firms report making good progress, but the work is not done. Technology remains the stubborn barrier, and cultural alignment still requires sustained leadership sponsorship to stick.