Elf On A Shelf vs Transaction Monitoring
What the Elf on the Shelf reveals about financial crime deterrence, and how visible AML design / transaction monitoring can build trust, shape behaviour, and prevent financial crime.
Personal Troubles, Public Issues
Fraud prevention is often discussed in terms of technology and regulation, but this article reveals the human reality behind the work. Reflecting on a Salv round-table with fraud leaders, MLROs, investigators, and product teams, it explores isolation, accountability, and the emotional weight of fighting increasingly organised financial crime – and why collaboration, honesty, and shared intelligence matter more than ever
Fraud Is Evolving Faster Than We’re Measuring It – But New Intelligence Helps Us Catch Up
The Global Fraud Index 2025 reveals how fraud is evolving into a systemic global risk, driven by misaligned policy, technology, and economic pressures. Drawing on the latest data, this article explores why rising fraud activity, AI-enabled identity crime, and uneven government intervention show that prevention is no longer just a technical challenge, but a question of how resilient our digital societies really are.
Always Learning
One of the things I love about working in the world of financial crime is that you never stop learning. Criminals are endlessly inventive. Regulators keep reshaping the rules. Technology evolves faster than we can sometimes keep pace. If you’re not open to refreshing your knowledge, you risk falling behind.
That’s why I try and make sure I put aside time purely for learning. This time I used it to complete the AML Fundamentals course by Sumsub. Yes, this is the course I posted about on the train! I didn’t get it all done on that journey, but I did do a few modules and it was engaging enough that I returned to it doing little and often over the next week or so. It’s online course, that you can do at your own pace – something I found super useful when juggling work/life/learning balance!
An Unexpected Secret Weapon for Fraud Leaders: A Criminologist on Call
Fraudsters rehearse their scripts for months. But your call centre agent might get 20 seconds. Customers replace stolen phones without telling their bank, while criminals quietly log in on the new device. And when new regulations arrive, everyone scrambles to comply – only to find fraud losses rising in unexpected ways. Unfortunately, these aren’t abstract problems. They’re real-world cracks in the system that I’ve seen again and again in my work with banks and fintechs, and vulnerability research. They’re also perfect examples of why having a criminologist inside your team can change the game. Let’s solve some of these problems together using criminological understanding and fraud prevention by design principles.
When Fraud Meets Friction: How to Design Financial Systems Where Crime Doesn’t Fit
Designing out financial crime means building systems where fraud can’t easily happen in the first place. Instead of reacting to new threats with more alerts and monitoring, this approach applies criminology, human-centred design, and smart friction to block criminal opportunities at the root. From safer digital journeys and layered defences to risk-based delays, interoperability, and protections for vulnerable users, designing out crime creates resilient products that stay ahead of deepfakes, AI-driven scams, instant payments and cross-platform fraud. Explore how financial services can shift from patching weaknesses to architecting crime-resistant systems from day one.