Key Findings
35% of financial services professionals identified political instability as a challenge to supply chain assessment.
While 37% of financial and professional services organizations peform sanctions screening entirely in-house, using a third party (34%) and hybrid approach (28%) are becoming increasingly common.
Only 38% of financial services professionals are "very confident" in their financial compliance program's ability to detect emerging geopolitical threats.
Nearly half of financial services professionals (49%) say keeping up with regulatory changes is the biggest challenge in sanctions compliance, up from one-third (34%) in 2023.
Looking ahead through 2025, just one-third (33%) of financial services professionals say that they are "very prepared" to address geopolitical risks over the next 12 months.
Nearly three-fifths (58%) of professionals in the insurance sector express concern over potential new economic and financial sanctions
26% of financial services professionals identified geopolitical risk as a challenge to supply chain assessment.
AI is primarily being used to identify suspicious behavior (63%) across financial and professional services organizations.
44% of financial and professional services organisations use AI for identifying risk signals.
54% of financial and professional services organisations use AI for network analysis.
Over 71% of executives across financial and professional services anticipate a rise in financial crime risks in 2025. This is also stated as almost three quarters of senior global financial services professionals.
Nearly half of financial and professional services organizations (49%) expect to invest in AI solutions as part of their efforts to tackle financial crime.
68% of executives across financial and professional services who expect an increase in financial crime risk cite cybersecurity threats and data breaches as the top risk factor.
Over a quarter (27%) of financial and professional services organizations have AI and machine learning as an established part of their financial crime compliance programs, exceeding 2023 levels (24%).
Globally, just under two in five (39%) senior financial professionals say that they are "very confident" in their organisation's sanctions screening capabilities, with the U.K. (34%) trailing the global average.
Among financial services professionals who were less than "very confident" in their program's ability to assess their supply chains for threats, more than half (56%) of global respondents identified cybercrime as the biggest challenge to their programs in 2025.
Only 20% of financial services professionals believe AI has had a "very positive" effect on their financial crime compliance framework – down from 37% in 2023.
AI is primarily being used to identify suspicious behavior (63%) across financial and professional services organizations.