Financial Technologies and Financial Crime: Key Developments and Areas for Future Research

Financial technologies, the ways in which they can be abused by criminals, and the responses by regulators, industry and law enforcement are changing fast. This is a dynamic area. It is, furthermore, important to bear in mind that we are witnessing the early stages of the development and implementation of key technologies and the pace of change and disruption is therefore set to increase. This chapter considers key developments that are important emerging areas for future research in financial crime. The following overlapping and mutual reinforcing developments are identified as important for researcher engagement: Stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs); expanding identification programs; FATF's virtual asset service provider (VASP) framework; structural changes in the financial landscape; technologies supporting supervision (suptech) and compliance (regtech); and open banking broadening to open finance.