UK Fraud Strategy 2026: Webinar on AI, Synthetic IDs, DeFi

Finextra will host an online webinar on June 9 examining the UK Fraud Strategy 2026–2029 and how banks, fintechs, telcos and online platforms should respond to AI-driven fraud, synthetic identities and risks from decentralized finance. The briefing will outline new expectations for industry and government as the UK moves to a system-wide approach to financial crime.

The session will be moderated by Teresa Connors, contributing editor at Finextra. Speakers will explain what organizations need to detect criminal innovation faster and why current data-sharing arrangements are not delivering timely signals. Panelists will describe likely implications for responsibilities across banking, payments, fintech, telecommunications and online platforms, and set out examples of how coordinated national action could enable earlier intervention against cross-channel threats.

Presenters will detail how criminals are using artificial intelligence to create realistic fake identities, deepfakes and real-time impersonation that can defeat legacy controls. Attacks that exploit instant payment rails and tokenized payment flows are arriving more quickly, and the webinar will identify the payment and marketplace areas where new attack patterns have been observed.

Speakers will outline shortcomings in current data sharing: fragmented data sets, slow legal and governance processes for sharing information, inconsistent standards for identity proofing, and limited technical integration between private firms and public authorities. The panel will note that, in many cases, suspicious activity only becomes visible after losses have occurred rather than at an earlier point when emerging patterns could be interrupted.

The event will cover technology and control options for firms that want to secure faster payments and new payment methods without degrading customer experience. Presentations will include use cases for predictive analytics, behavioral biometrics, tokenization and cloud-native fraud platforms to speed detection and response. The discussion will also address the need for updated governance, clearer data-sharing agreements and faster operational coordination across industry and law enforcement.

Identity verification will be a core topic. Speakers will consider multilayered identity proofing, continuous authentication and shared repositories of threat indicators as ways to counter synthetic IDs and AI-assisted impersonation. The panel will describe why identity controls may need faster iteration to match the rate of automated identity creation and deepfake-enabled attacks.

The webinar will link fraud risk to digital asset markets and decentralized finance, examining where DeFi and crypto exposures intersect with anti-money-laundering and fraud obligations. Presenters will discuss adaptations firms can make now to controls and monitoring for tokenized flows and on-chain activity. Quantum-related risks will be raised as a longer-term concern for cryptographic protections.

The June 9 briefing serves as a preview of discussions planned for NextGen FinCrime on July 8 in London, where identity, AI-driven prevention and crypto-related risks will be examined in more depth. The webinar aims to give industry and regulators an early view of practical challenges and steps under consideration to detect and disrupt emerging financial crime patterns.