PAUL MUNSON, CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER AND MLRO, WALLESTER UK
Paul Munson, Wallester UK
Paul Munson discusses the growing role of AI in financial services and financial crime prevention, highlighting the need for organisations to embrace the technology while maintaining appropriate safeguards and human oversight. Drawing on his experience as a financial crime investigator, he explains how criminals are quick to adopt new technologies and how AI can help compliance teams respond more effectively. He sees significant opportunities in areas such as customer onboarding, transaction monitoring, fraud detection and dynamic risk assessments, allowing businesses to identify suspicious activity and emerging risks more quickly.
The conversation also explores the challenges of regulating AI and ensuring organisations remain accountable for the decisions it makes. Paul stresses the importance of continuously monitoring and validating AI outcomes, applying the same quality assurance processes used for human teams and ensuring that people remain responsible for critical decisions. He also raises concerns about the future of compliance careers, particularly how the next generation will gain experience if AI takes over more entry-level tasks. He believes future compliance professionals will need to become AI-savvy while retaining the human judgement and expertise needed to oversee the technology effectively.
OLIVIER KAMANDA, SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER, GOOGLE
Olivier Kamanda, Google
Olivier Kamanda explores the growing potential of agentic commerce, challenging the misconception that AI agents will independently make purchasing decisions without consumer involvement. He explains how Google is working to develop reliable, trustworthy shopping experiences that keep consumers in control, allowing them to set limits and constraints while benefiting from more personalised product research. He also highlights the importance of building trust through established security measures, merchant screening and open protocols that provide greater transparency and consistency across the commerce ecosystem.
The conversation also examines the emerging risks associated with AI, particularly prompt injection attacks, fraud and the potential for agents to be manipulated by bad actors. Olivier discusses how businesses can use evolving AI models and security measures to anticipate and mitigate these threats, while highlighting the importance of regulation and industry standards. Looking ahead, he sees agentic commerce as an opportunity to give consumers access to a much wider range of products and merchants, with stronger protections, greater personalisation and more sophisticated shopping experiences.
LESLIE BOYCE, MSC, CYBERCRIME, ECONOMIC CRIME INVESTIGATOR
Leslie Boyce MSc, Economic Crime Investigator
Leslie Boyce explores the concept of the authorisation paradox, highlighting how consumers can unknowingly agree to ongoing subscriptions or financial commitments while completing what they believe to be simple, one-off transactions. Drawing on research conducted for his master’s dissertation at the University of Portsmouth, he reveals how most participants in his study agreed to terms and conditions without reading them, raising questions about whether online consent is genuinely informed. Leslie also discusses how platform trust, familiar branding and consumer psychology can influence purchasing decisions, sometimes leading even cautious consumers to overlook warning signs of potential fraud.
The conversation also examines the blurred line between legitimate digital business practices and outright scams, particularly where hidden subscription agreements and misleading payment journeys are involved. Leslie highlights the need for the payments industry to look beyond whether a consumer authorised a transaction and consider the circumstances in which that authorisation was obtained. He questions whether ongoing charges should always be permitted without continued consumer engagement and challenges businesses to think more carefully about transparency, informed consent and consumer protection.
KATHY GORMLEY, HEAD OF PRODUCT, RESISTANT AI
Kathy Gormley, Resistant AI
Kathy Gormley discusses how Resistant AI helps financial organisations protect themselves against fraud, particularly by identifying fraudulent funds and money mule operations. Drawing on the company’s work with Bank of Valletta, she explains the challenges of introducing real-time transaction monitoring and AML decisioning, highlighting the importance of having the right data available at the right time. She emphasises that successful real-time decision-making involves much more than speed, requiring strong data foundations, careful operational planning and a clear understanding of customer impact and risk appetite.
The conversation also explores the importance of treating AI implementation as an ongoing process rather than a one-off project. Kathy highlights the need for continuous investment as customer behaviour, data and financial crime risks evolve. She also encourages the industry to be more precise when discussing AI, explaining that established machine learning techniques used in financial crime prevention should not be treated in the same way as newer developments such as agentic AI.
ANDREI SKOROBOGATOV, DIRECTOR OF POLICY, GLOBAL ANTI-SCAM ALLIANCE (GASA)
Andrei Skorobogatov, Global Anti-Scam Alliance
Andrei Skorobogatov explores how fraud and scams are evolving through the growing use of stolen and synthetic identities, including identities created using AI by combining information from multiple sources to create individuals who do not exist. He explains why traditional identity verification is no longer sufficient as a standalone defence and why banks and payment providers need to consider a wider range of risk signals, including behavioural analytics, transaction monitoring and information from other sectors. He also highlights how AI can help organisations identify deepfakes and other signs of inauthentic behaviour.
The conversation also focuses on the importance of cross-sector collaboration and data sharing in tackling fraud at scale. Andrei explains that banks, technology companies and telecommunications providers each hold different pieces of information about fraudulent activity, making it essential to bring these signals together to identify and prevent scams effectively. Looking ahead, he believes the industry must move towards more automated, large-scale collaboration to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated criminals who are also using AI and automation to target consumers and businesses.
CLOSING SUMMARY
Across all interviews, a clear picture emerges of the challenges facing the financial services and payments industry. From increasingly sophisticated fraud and scams to misleading payment practices, the conversations highlight the growing need for greater transparency, consumer protection and trust across the industry.
