Cybercrime overtakes fraud as key business concern
Companies are becoming more concerned about cybercrime and less worried about fraud, as cryptocurrency becomes more popular, new research on financial crime has found.
Global data technology company ComplyAdvantage released its The State Of Financial Crime 2022 report based on insights and observations from 800 compliance decision makers worldwide.
Read more: ComplyAdvantage expands free fintech programme to North America
It found that cybercrime has overtaken fraud as the top financial concern for business owners. There was a huge reduction in the number citing fraud as a main concern, from 61 per cent in 2020 to 37 per cent in 2021.
This shift has taken place as cryptocurrencies and virtual assets have become more mainstream. Just two per cent of the businesses surveyed said that they are not considering crypto services and never will.
The majority of firms (80 per cent) said they filed more suspicious activity reports (SARs) in 2021, compared to 70 per cent who said the same in 2020. Nearly a third (31 per cent) said they filed 10 to 20 per cent more SARs in 2021 than in 2020.
Read more: Insolvent P2P firms warned against using Scheme of Arrangement
“2022 will prove to be yet another challenging year, given the digital acceleration caused by the pandemic, the continued pace of innovation and market adoption of crypto services and the ever changing sanctions landscape ignited by ongoing geopolitics,” said Tom Keatinge, director, centre for financial crime and security studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world’s oldest defence and security think tank.
“Counter-risk intelligence will be a key element in ensuring the fintech community remains current on the multifaceted threat trends that will confront their businesses.”
Read more: City watchdog receives 518 whistleblowing allegations in Q3
“Reports are great but avoiding regulatory fines or business shutdowns is even better!” said Charles Delingpole, founder and chief executive of ComplyAdvantage.
“As the tide of new financial services is on the rise, so is money laundering and related crimes. Informed teams that are able to assess the known risks in the year ahead will be best placed to protect the integrity of their businesses.”