By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
THE FATF (Financial Action Task Force) will hold a “flagship event” in 2027 focused on fighting fraud.
Giles Thomson, the organisation’s president, said the move is aimed at galvanising support to tackle scams amid a surge in global losses.
“Collaboration needs to extend beyond the traditional anti-money laundering community,” he said during a keynote address at ‘International Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2026’ (IAFCS 2026).
“Which is why the FATF will bring technology, telecommunications and other sectors together at a flagship event next year to agree a path forward towards better prevention, detection and disruption.”
His full speech is available to read [HERE].
Thomson, who took over as President of the FATF in July, recently unveiled a plan to tackle the global surge in fraud.
The organisation has estimated that global scam losses have surged to over $500 billion amid the rise of AI-enabled scams and the ‘industrialisation’ of scams, singling out scam compounds. These are criminal enterprises, often based in Southeast Asia, where trafficked or coerced workers are forced to carry out online scams.
FATF warns over fraud surge
Speaking at IAFCS, Thomson warned that these compounds have “transformed fraud into an industrial-scale criminal enterprise”.
He said these criminal enterprises combine fraud, money laundering, cybercrime and human trafficking.
“So we are conducting a focused review of the end-to-end illicit financial flows from scam compounds,” he said.
He added that the FATF is placing fraud at the centre of a “comprehensive work programme, comprising three elements”. These are
- Understand the threat,
- Design an evidence-based response, and
- Collaborate for maximum impact.
After the scam compound review, Thomson said the FATF will examine how countries are using AML systems to combat fraud.
“We are already seeing promising examples of innovation,” he said.
“[These include] anti-scam centres, private-sector initiatives to enhance signals exchange, and cutting-edge technological solutions including AI to gather, interrogate and utilise large data sets at pace.”
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