Leaders from across Europe are gathering in Dublin for the European Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2026. Across keynotes, panels, roundtables, and conversations, fraud and money laundering are top of mind as pressing challenges facing the EU and UK. Financial crime is becoming more organised, more cross-border, and harder to detect in isolation.
Increasingly, the industry agrees that better information sharing is no longer optional as a solution — it is essential. That perspective is reinforced by the findings of Nasdaq Verafin’s 2026 Global Financial Crime Report, which paints a striking picture of the scale of financial crime across Europe and the urgent need for a more effective, collaborative path forward.
Financial Crime in Europe: Interconnected & Evolving
Financial crime across the EU and UK is no longer defined by isolated incidents or single typologies. Instead, it reflects a highly interconnected ecosystem where fraud, money laundering, and illicit finance reinforce one another.
According to the report, estimated total fraud in the UK reached $43.3 billion in 2025, growing at a 14% compound annual growth rate over the past two years. Across the EU, estimated total fraud reached $64.1 billion, underscoring the sheer scale of the challenge facing European institutions.
But these figures only tell part of the story. Fraud is often the entry point — the mechanism through which illicit funds are generated — while money laundering is what allows criminal networks to move, disguise, and ultimately profit from those proceeds. In 2025, $151.1 billion was laundered through the UK financial system, with an additional $672.4 billion flowing through the EU.
As conversations at this year’s summit will likely highlight, treating fraud and money laundering threats in isolation limits institutions’ ability to disrupt them effectively.
Fraud as a Gateway: APP Scams & Authorised Fraud
Fraud continues to be one of the most visible and damaging forms of financial crime in the EU and UK, particularly as digital channels and instant payments become the norm.
The 2026 Global Financial Crime Report shows that authorised fraud is growing faster than overall fraud losses across the region. In the UK, authorised fraud reached an estimated $4.0 billion in 2025, growing at a 22% two-year CAGR. Across the EU, authorised fraud totalled $8.9 billion, with a 17% two-year CAGR. This growth reflects a shift in criminal tactics. Rather than attacking systems directly, fraudsters increasingly target customers through impersonation, social engineering, and investment scams. By convincing individuals to authorise payments themselves, criminals bypass many traditional controls — particularly in real-time payment environments.
Yet APP fraud does not exist in a vacuum. Its success depends on what happens next.
Money Laundering & the Role of Mule Networks
Behind most large-scale fraud schemes lie well-established laundering infrastructure. Mule networks — often operating across multiple institutions and jurisdictions — are used to receive, move, and layer illicit funds at speed.
The Global Financial Crime Report 2026 estimates that tens of billions of dollars in illicit funds are laundered by mule networks across the EU and UK. These networks are rarely tied to a single crime type. Instead, they support a wide range of activity, from APP fraud and account takeover to broader money laundering operations.
Individually, mule accounts can be difficult to detect. Activity may appear low-value, short-lived, or consistent with normal customer behaviour. Collectively, however, patterns emerge — shared counterparties, repeated behaviours, and rapid movement of funds across institutions. This is where many financial crime programmes face a structural challenge: no single institution sees the full network.
The Cross-Border Nature of Modern Financial Crime
Europe’s interconnected financial system is a strength — but it also creates opportunity for criminals. Funds move quickly across borders, jurisdictions, and payment schemes, often outpacing traditional detection and investigation processes.
Fraud committed in one country may be laundered through accounts in another. Mule networks routinely span multiple banks and regions. Meanwhile, differences in regulatory frameworks, data availability, and reporting requirements can create blind spots that organised crime exploits.
The result is a financial crime landscape that is inherently cross-border, while many detection efforts remain institution-centric. In fact, the report found there was a combined $177.5 billion in cross-border illicit activity that touched the EU and UK financial systems. This mismatch is becoming increasingly unsustainable.
Why Information Sharing Changes the Trajectory
Across the industry there is growing consensus that responsible, intelligence-led collaboration is one of the most effective ways to counter organised financial crime. The data in the Global Financial Crime Report 2026 supports that view.
Information sharing enables institutions to move beyond siloed detection by connecting activity across banks, payment providers, and jurisdictions. With it, financial institutions can work together for earlier and more complete visibility into emerging threats — a valuable advantage against mule networks and cross-border laundering activity.
More broadly, information sharing strengthens the resilience of the entire financial ecosystem. Customers are better protected, institutions reduce losses and operational strain, and regulators gain confidence that systemic risks are being addressed collaboratively.
A Shared Challenge Requires a Shared Response
Discussions at the European Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2026 will likely reinforce what the 2026 Global Financial Crime Report makes clear: financial crime across the EU and UK is large-scale, organised, and increasingly interconnected.
Fraud, money laundering, mule networks, and cross-border activity are not separate problems — they are parts of the same system. And confronting that system requires a shared view of risk.
Information sharing is no longer a future ambition. It is a foundational capability for any institution serious about advancing Europe’s fight against financial crime.
Criminal networks collaborate. To stay ahead, so must we.
About the Author
BEN ROWLEY Global Marketing Lead
Ben Rowley is Global Marketing Lead at Nasdaq Verafin, where he drives international growth and market engagement across financial crime prevention solutions. With deep experience in go-to-market strategy, customer insights, and global market expansion, Ben has held senior roles across credit bureaus, top-tier banks, and fintechs, including leading data-led risk and identity solutions at Experian. He began his career at Barclays, bringing first-hand banking experience to his work translating complex technologies into clear, customer-focused solutions through a highly collaborative approach.
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