Research & Insights
Original analysis, industry research, expert commentary and in-depth perspectives from AML Observatory. This section examines regulatory trends, market developments, compliance challenges and the changing nature of financial crime across jurisdictions and industries.
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Aug- 2026 -20 August
FlowShield Research Combines Fund-Flow Tracking and LLMs for Crypto AML Detection
A new research preprint proposes a cryptocurrency anti-money laundering framework that combines transaction semantics, fund-flow reconstruction, graph learning and large language models to detect laundering…
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19 August
RUSI Maps North Korea’s Crypto-to-Fiat Laundering Vulnerabilities and Compliance Responses
A new research paper from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) examines how North Korea converts stolen virtual assets into fiat currency, highlighting the point…
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19 August
Fintel Alliance Finds Coordinated Mortgage Fraud Across Major Australian Banks
AUSTRAC’s Fintel Alliance has identified coordinated mortgage fraud and systemic weaknesses across Australia’s lending sector after analysing data from 10 major banks. According to AUSTRAC,…
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19 August
Static KYC Is Giving Way to Perpetual Customer Risk Monitoring
Periodic KYC reviews are increasingly being challenged by a more dynamic model of customer risk management: perpetual KYC, or pKYC. The shift reflects a basic…
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18 August
Legacy Systems and Fragmented Data Remain Major Barriers to RegTech Adoption
Legacy technology, fragmented data and internal governance are continuing to slow the adoption of third-party RegTech, even as financial institutions increase their use of compliance…
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17 August
Fragmented Ownership Is Undermining Financial Crime Risk Assessments
Financial crime risk assessments can fail even when the methodology itself appears sound if accountability is fragmented across too many functions, according to new analysis…
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17 August
AI Governance Moves Into Regulatory Examinations Across the US, UK and UAE
Financial regulators in the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates are increasingly treating artificial intelligence governance as part of existing supervisory…
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15 August
AI-Driven Transaction Monitoring May Increase Alerts Before It Improves AML Efficiency
Financial institutions adopting artificial intelligence in transaction monitoring should not assume that better technology will immediately reduce alert volumes. Industry discussion highlighted by Napier AI…
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14 August
AI Agents Move Into AML and KYC Workflows as Banks Test Compliance Automation
AI agents are moving from experimental pilots into practical financial-crime and compliance workflows, with banks increasingly testing them across onboarding, screening, due diligence and ongoing…
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14 August
FinCEN Analysis Flags Nearly $5 Billion in Suspected Human Smuggling-Related Activity
The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has published a new Financial Trend Analysis examining Bank Secrecy Act data linked to suspected human smuggling between 2023…
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