By Ben Rowley
Global Marketing Lead-at Nasdaq Verafin
IN financial services, competition between institutions is usually good for consumers.
It leads to more reliable products and services, competitive pricing and improved accessibility.
However, in the case of financial crime management, the opposite is true: information sharing between institutions provides consumers with robust protection against a multi-trillion-pound global challenge.
Regulatory bodies in the UK and EU have introduced rules removing barriers to information sharing, but Nasdaq Verafin’s report, Financial Crime Insights: Europe, found that many institutions still have reservations about making use of these new permissions in their financial crime management programs.
The UK ECCTA: A Step Change in Financial Crime Management
The UK’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) aims to help institutions prevent, investigate and detect scams related to money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions and tax evasion, market abuse and fraud. Coming into force in early 2024, the regulation disapplied civil liability for private-to-private information sharing.
Guidance on the ECCTA from UK Home Office also highlights the potential for banks and other regulated firms to leverage technology platforms and consortium data to enhance their efforts to combat financial crime.
Despite the intent of these measures to provide clarity and promote confidence for financial institutions in sharing information with protection from liability, only 50% of UK respondents were more likely to share information with their peers. Of those who were less likely to share information, concerns about competition were the most common reason given for their reluctance.
Other reasons include lack of clear regulatory guidance, legal and privacy risk, and lack of resources. Thus, institutions require ongoing support and clarity from industry regulators to fully benefit from this legislation.
AMLR Article 75: Enabling Information Sharing in the EU
Article 75 of the Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 outlines a similar mandate to the UK ECCTA. It empowers financial institutions in EU member states to form cross-border partnerships within the EU to improve their AML/CFT programs. These partnerships may also include public sector participants, such as AML/CFT supervisors, financial intelligence units (FIUs) and other competent authorities.
In Nasdaq Verafin’s survey, the same percentage of EU respondents (51%) confirmed a greater likelihood of sharing information with other banks under this legislation.
Of those less likely to share information, concerns over competition were again a large factor, although respondents were slightly more concerned about lack of regulatory guidance (29% and 31%, respectively).
Overall, these results are positive and show institutional intent for improving AML/CFT programs. Greater collaboration across the EU’s public and private sector is a significant opportunity for a step change in anti-financial crime efforts. However, for this change to reach its full potential, institutions need regulatory guidance and education on why information sharing is in their best interest.
Scaling Your Financial Crime Management Program with New Regulations
In the coming years, new information sharing frameworks and tools will help institutions collaborate with each other to combat financial crime and protect the integrity of the financial system. With the recent release of the UK Government’s Fraud Strategy 2026-2029, the message is clear: effective financial crime management depends on coordinated intelligence sharing and innovation that is embedded into how institutions operate every day. As regulatory expectations continue to rise in response to increasingly sophisticated threats, working in isolation is no longer credible. Collaboration and innovation are not simply enablers of compliance — they are the only viable path to staying ahead of financial crime and protecting the integrity of the financial system.
For more insights, download Nasdaq Verafin’s 2026 Global Financial Crime Report.
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