Banks urged to fight fraud as networks
A fintech executive warned that generative AI has created fertile ground for organised fraud and argued banks must coordinate cross‑border like Interpol to dismantle criminal networks. The call framed fraud as an industry-level, networked problem rather than one solvable by isolated model improvements (bankinfosecurity.com).
Banks are being urged to treat fraud like organized crime, not a series of isolated account takeovers, as generative artificial intelligence helps scams scale faster. (bankinfosecurity.com) Joël Winteregg, chief executive of fraud platform Vyntra, said on April 13 that banks should “operate as a unified intelligence network” because the groups attacking them already share tools, tactics and mule accounts across borders. He described “community scoring” that lets institutions compare signals on suspicious activity the way police agencies share leads. (bankinfosecurity.com) His warning landed as INTERPOL said in March 2026 that financial fraud has become a major transnational crime linked to money laundering, human trafficking and cybercrime. INTERPOL’s latest threat assessment said artificial-intelligence-enhanced fraud is 4.5 times more profitable than traditional methods. (interpol.int) The basic problem is simple: one bank may see a single bad payment or fake account, while a network view can show the same device, phone number or money mule appearing across many institutions. Winteregg said better models inside one bank will not stop rings that move between banks and jurisdictions. (bankinfosecurity.com) United States regulators have been signaling the same shift. The Federal Reserve’s Consumer Compliance Outlook devoted a special 2025 issue to fraud after describing it as a top concern for consumers, financial institutions and businesses as schemes proliferate. (consumercomplianceoutlook.org) Losses keep rising while the schemes get easier to run. The Federal Trade Commission said Americans reported a record $15.9 billion in fraud losses in 2025, with about 1 million imposter-scam reports and more than $3.5 billion in imposter losses. (ftc.gov) The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported more than $20 billion in cybercrime losses in 2025, with investment fraud the largest category and business email compromise still among the costliest. Those are the kinds of payment and identity attacks banks often see only after funds start moving. (ic3.gov) Government agencies already use shared-intelligence systems for illicit finance. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network describes its mission as collecting, analyzing and disseminating financial intelligence, and it issues advisories so banks can spot common patterns and file suspicious activity reports using shared terms. (fincen.gov, fincen.gov) Winteregg’s argument is that fraud defense needs a similar operating model before money leaves an account, not just after a case reaches law enforcement. The closer banks get to acting like a cross-border network, the less room fraud rings have to hide in the gaps between them. (bankinfosecurity.com)
