The State of
Financial Crime 2026
Asia-Pacific edition

Asia-Pacific is where financial crime's newest fronts open first. Real-time payments are the norm across much of the region, money laundering-as-a-service is industrializing, and criminals move at the speed the rails allow. The leaders here have met that pace head-on. But conviction is outrunning the operational foundation needed to deliver on it.

This is the APAC cut of our sixth annual survey of senior compliance decision-makers. What’s inside:

• APAC is out in front on money laundering-as-a-service. 71% of firms have already deployed enhanced transaction monitoring to counter it – the highest adoption rate globally. Find out what the region sees that others don't yet.
• A market betting on innovation over restriction. Nearly 3x as many leaders back an innovation-focused regulatory approach (60%) over a regulation-first model (22%) – but Singapore and Australia don't line up where you'd expect. See where the two markets split.
• Real-time or nothing. As payments turn instant and irrevocable, 61% of firms now rank real-time monitoring as their primary defense. Understand why the detection window has collapsed, and what closes it.
• AI conviction is widespread, but deployment isn't. 100% of firms have seen or expect positive outcomes from agentic and predictive AI, and 89% say including AI is what unlocks budget approval. Yet deployment trails every other region. Learn where the friction actually sits.