The Long View, with Holly Phillippi
Every year, the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) brings together professionals from across the financial crime compliance community to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and explore what comes next for the industry. ACAMS Las Vegas 2026, held September 29th to October 1st, was no exception. Beyond the familiar conversations and emerging technologies, three themes stood out: the convergence of fraud and anti-money laundering (AML), a more pragmatic approach to artificial intelligence (AI), and a growing recognition that collaboration is essential to solving increasingly complex financial crime challenges.
For our CEO, Holly Phillippi, who has attended ACAMS conferences for many years, this year’s conference offered a clear view of how the industry is evolving. The conversations are changing, the technology is maturing, and the next generation of compliance professionals is stepping forward. Together, these developments point toward a more connected, thoughtful, and collaborative approach to financial crime prevention.
Key Highlights
- Fraud and AML convergence has moved from industry talking point to operational reality, and siloed teams risk missing the connections between related events.
- Connecting fraud indicators with transaction patterns helps institutions see the networks behind individual incidents and strengthens suspicious activity reporting.
- The AI conversation in AML compliance has shifted from what the technology can do to how institutions govern, validate, and explain it.
- Data quality, explainability, and human oversight remain the institution’s responsibility, even when AI comes from a third-party provider.
- An incremental approach to AI adoption, starting with a defined use case and clear success criteria, builds confidence based on evidence.
- Collaboration across financial institutions, regulators, law enforcement, and technology providers remains essential to preventing financial crime.
Fraud and AML Convergence Is Now an Operational Reality
For years, the industry has discussed the convergence of fraud and AML, often shortened to FRAML. At ACAMS, that convergence felt like an operational reality.
Fraud was front and center in conversations about financial crime risk, and the connections between fraud detection, transaction monitoring, investigations, and suspicious activity reporting were evident across many sessions. That focus mirrors regulatory priorities: fraud is one of the eight national anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) priorities published by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in 2021.
The reason is straightforward: financial crime does not respect organizational boundaries.
Fraud can generate proceeds that are subsequently laundered through complex networks of accounts and transactions. A suspicious transaction identified by an AML monitoring system may be connected to fraudulent activity that occurred earlier in the customer journey. Each event provides a piece of the same larger picture.
When fraud and AML teams operate independently, important context can be lost:
- Information sits in separate systems.
- Investigations are conducted in isolation.
- Connections between seemingly unrelated events remain hidden.
Bringing these disciplines closer together creates an opportunity to see more. By connecting fraud indicators with transaction patterns and broader financial activity, institutions can move beyond identifying individual incidents to understanding the networks behind them. This can support more informed investigations, stronger suspicious activity reporting, and a more complete view of risk across business lines.
The implications extend beyond organizational structure. Financial institutions need to consider whether their data, analytics, and investigative processes support this connected view of financial crime.
The more useful question now is how to connect fraud detection and AML monitoring to understand the full lifecycle of suspicious activity. That shift requires institutions to reconsider traditional silos and adopt approaches that reflect how financial crime actually happens.
AI in AML Compliance: From Possibility to Accountability
Unsurprisingly, AI was everywhere at ACAMS. It appeared in conversations across the conference floor, from demonstrations of AI-powered AML software to discussions about the future of compliance operations.
What stood out was a shift in the nature of the conversation. Beyond asking what AI can do, the industry is now asking how it should be used, how its effectiveness can be demonstrated, and how institutions can deploy it responsibly.
This is an important evolution. Financial crime compliance presents compelling opportunities for AI. High volumes of alerts, persistent false positives, complex investigations, and resource-constrained teams create clear incentives to improve efficiency. Technology that helps analysts prioritize and manage cases, assess potential matches, or identify meaningful patterns can make a tangible difference.
Explainability and Data Quality
In a regulated environment, institutions need to understand how their technology reaches conclusions, what data informs its outputs, and where human judgment remains necessary. Explainability, governance, data quality, and appropriate oversight are fundamental considerations. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) highlights the same need for informed oversight in its report on new technologies for AML/CFT.
AI also introduces a familiar challenge in a new form: the quality of the output depends heavily on the quality of the input. Inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent data can undermine even sophisticated analytical capabilities. As AI systems interpret information and generate recommendations, organizations need to understand both what the technology produces and how it arrives there.
Accountability Stays with the Institution
There is also a broader question of accountability. Using a third-party solution does not remove an institution’s responsibility to understand the processes supporting its compliance program. Organizations must retain sufficient knowledge and oversight to explain their decisions and demonstrate that their controls are working as intended.
A Measured Path to AI Adoption
The most constructive path forward is a measured one. Rather than rejecting AI or adopting it indiscriminately, institutions can:
- Identify where the technology can solve a defined problem.
- Test it carefully in a controlled environment.
- Validate its performance against clear success criteria.
- Establish appropriate controls before expanding its use.
For example, an institution might begin by applying AI to help assess screening results or prioritize alerts for analyst review. With clear success criteria, a testing environment, and human oversight, the institution can evaluate whether the application delivers meaningful improvements before introducing it more broadly. This incremental approach allows organizations to build confidence based on evidence rather than expectation. AI maturity will ultimately be measured by how effectively and responsibly an institution uses the technology, regardless of how much of it is deployed.
Collaboration and the Next Generation of Compliance Professionals
Beyond the technology and strategic discussions, ACAMS also offered a reminder of the importance of community. For compliance professionals, the day-to-day work can be demanding. Teams are often small, responsibilities are substantial, and regulatory expectations continue to evolve. Bringing together professionals from financial institutions, law enforcement, regulatory bodies, and technology providers creates space to exchange ideas, learn from different experiences, and return to the work with renewed perspective.
The presence of new faces at this year’s conference was particularly encouraging. The next generation of financial crime professionals is entering the industry, bringing fresh perspectives and helping carry its mission forward. That shared commitment matters, because no single organization can prevent financial crime alone.
What ACAMS Las Vegas 2026 Signals for Financial Crime Compliance
The themes emerging from ACAMS reinforce a common direction for the industry. Fraud and AML must be viewed through a more connected lens. AI should be adopted with purpose, supported by strong governance and human judgment. And we must work together to build solutions that address the broader realities of financial crime.
Technology supports these priorities, but progress depends on understanding the problems being solved, asking the right questions, and maintaining accountability for the outcomes.
Ultimately, the future of financial crime compliance will belong to organizations that combine innovation with critical thinking, specialization with collaboration, and automation with informed human judgment.
The opportunity is to see more, understand more, and make better decisions in the effort to prevent financial crime, with faster work as a natural result.
