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01-Blog images 'September' #1

Category: Expertise strategy

What trends will we see in AML and KYC in the finance sector in 2026?

With artificial intelligence (AI) maturing rapidly across 2025, financial institutions experienced clear improvements in the accuracy, speed and reliability of their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and particularly Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. These developments have shifted the expectations of regulators, whilst improving customer experiences, and have reshaped how compliance teams operate. In 2026, the sector is preparing for more effective monitoring, AI standardisation, governance, and an increasingly proactive approach to risk management.

Mehak Nagpal, Head of UK Practices

One of the most meaningful changes in 2025 was the significant reduction in ‘false positives’ across firms, in other words, alerting customers about suspected crimes that were in fact legitimate activities. Some organisations saw decreases of up to 60% this is a result of more sophisticated AI models capable of understanding context, refining alerts and drastically helping analysts. Large language models played a key role in improving alert quality and speeding up analysis, enabling compliance teams to focus time on genuinely suspicious behaviour, rather than the mundane task of sifting through low-risk alerts.

Alongside this, agentic AI workflows gained momentum. These systems are now capable of autonomously gathering customer information, building risk profiles and drafting Suspicious Activity Reports for human approval. This evolution was the beginning of a more automated financial crime operations landscape, where technology performs the heavy lifting and human specialists oversee decision-making.

A significant development in 2025 was the operationalisation of Perpetual KYC, enabled by rapid advancements in AI. Instead of retrospective reviews, sophisticated AI-powered systems can now maintain constant oversight of customer activity and behaviour, triggering enhanced reviews the moment a risk signal changes. This shift from static to continuous monitoring has made KYC more dynamic and aligns with the real-time nature of financial crime.

 

What is on the horizon in 2026?

Looking ahead, 2026 is expected to be the year that AI in financial crime becomes tightly governed. Regulators in the EU, UK and the US are emphasising transparency, explainability and human oversight. The EU AI Act, coming fully into effect by August 2026, and the Colorado AI Act in the US, both force firms to ensure that AI models are ethical, and free from unfair bias. As a result, human validation will become mandatory for many decision points, ensuring that AI enhances risk assessment rather than replacing human judgement.

Real-time KYC and AML will continue to advance throughout 2026, with financial institutions moving towards automated due diligence and continuous monitoring. AI systems capable of assessing identity, transaction patterns and behavioural signals during interaction will enable faster onboarding, and more effective crime prevention.

Will ethical AI be a key focus?

Ethical AI will also be a central focus this year. The financial sector is increasingly aware of the risks of deepfakes and inaccurate documentation, which are becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect. Concerns around algorithmic bias, hallucinations and inconsistent outputs mean firms must invest in governance frameworks and data quality controls to ensure their systems remain trustworthy, compliant, and fair.

 

What is happening with real-time transaction monitoring?

The integration of large language models into alert triage processes is enabling faster and less rigid systems. This allows real-time fraud detection and AML monitoring, which will strengthen institutions’ ability to spot criminal activity across both domains. Increasingly, monitoring will shift from reactive assessment to predictive analysis, with dynamic customer risk profiles offering early signals of unusual behaviour long before suspicious activity becomes visible through traditional controls.


 

Organisations that maintain clean and well-structured data will outperform those relying solely on sophisticated AI models.

 

 


What are the challenges of implementing RegTech?

RegTech will play an essential role in supporting compliance functions as regulations continue to evolve. Many institutions are turning to technology that continuously tracks regulatory changes, ensuring they remain aligned with updates.

The rapid expansion of RegTech also introduces new challenges such as model drift and vendor fragmentation, which is leading to poor integration. There are also gaps in data lineage, which is the ability to trace information from its original source through to an AI-generated decision. It is increasingly scrutinised by regulators, yet remains poorly mapped in many organisations. Finally, the long-standing issue of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ continues to challenge AI and machine-learning systems, making strong data and accuracy more critical than ever.

 

How are global regulations shaping financial due diligence?

Global regulations are also broadening the scope of due diligence expectations. With the growing influence of the new EU AML Authority, a stronger push towards harmonised EU standards is expected throughout 2026. At the same time, AI governance requirements are becoming embedded into due diligence frameworks, compelling firms to demonstrate not only compliance but also ethical and transparent use of automated systems. Traditional financial due diligence is expanding to include ESG considerations, supply-chain integrity, cybersecurity and non-financial misconduct, transforming it into a more strategic, sector-wide assessment of risk.

These regulatory changes also present new opportunities. The industry is moving closer to achieving standardised KYC requirements for international corporations, reducing duplication for global businesses.

Key takeaways for businesses

As institutions prepare for these changes, several priorities stand out. Establishing strong AI governance frameworks early will be essential, supported by a firm commitment to data quality and completeness. Organisations that maintain clean and well-structured data will outperform those relying solely on sophisticated AI models.

Real-time, automated risk monitoring will become the new standard for financial crime prevention, and firms that delay investment in modern RegTech solutions may struggle to keep pace with rapid regulatory updates. Manual processes will increasingly become unsustainable in a world that demands speed, accuracy and continuous oversight.

With compliance functions under mounting pressure and the talent gap widening, many organisations are turning to expert partners for support. emagine continues to work closely with financial institutions to provide specialist AML and KYC expertise, strategic advisory services, digital transformation support, and tailored training to help teams adapt to emerging regulatory and technological expectations.

As regulatory scrutiny intensifies and AI governance becomes mandatory, organisations must ensure they have a suitable strategy in place. As AML, KYC and AI governance expectations accelerate, now is the time to act.

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