Filenews 23 August 2025 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Innovative technologies are being used by the relevant supervisory authorities in Europe to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published a report on the use of technological tools, and a key element is the creation of an Anti-Money Laundering Authority to coordinate its supervision at EU level.
This institutional change provides a unique opportunity to reassess supervisory approaches and harness the potential of technology to strengthen supervision. To inform about this work, the EBA conducted an investigation into the national competent authorities in cooperation with the AMLA (EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority) working group. It organized a dedicated workshop to identify trends, challenges and good practices in the use of Assistive Technology (SupTech) in the supervision of the fight against money laundering/terrorist financing.
SupTech (Supervisory Technology) is the use of innovative technologies by supervisory and regulatory authorities to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness of their supervisory systems. It targets supervisors (such as central banks and financial supervisors) to help them better manage risks and oversee supervised entities in the financial sector by leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP).
A few weeks ago, the European Banking Authority reported that criminals are increasingly using AI to automate money laundering schemes, forge documents and avoid detection. Financial institutions are struggling to keep up with these sophisticated threats, which underscores the need for responsible use of AI and strong monitoring. The criminals' plans, the EBA says, leverage artificial intelligence to create highly realistic narratives that incorporate popular social themes, making them increasingly persuasive. Fraudsters also adapt their techniques to avoid applying the strict customer authentication requirements imposed by EU law.
According to the content of the report, thirty-one competent authorities from 25 EU Member States and three competent authorities from third countries responded to the European Banking Authority's 2024 survey. In total, relevant supervisory authorities in the EU have worked on a total of 60 SupTech projects or tools to date, using 13 different technologies to tackle 13 types of money laundering (AML).
While SupTech deployments in the field of anti-money laundering/terrorist financing are still ongoing, almost half of the tools or projects identified (47%) are already in production, with an additional 38% under development and 15% in exploratory phases. The report finds that national competition authorities are already reaping tangible benefits, such as improved data quality, enhanced cooperation and more effective risk detection. However, there are still several challenges, such as limited resources, legal uncertainty, and limitations on data governance.
The report notes that the development and maintenance of SupTech tools requires significant investments in both human and technical resources. Many authorities are facing tight budgets, legacy IT infrastructure, and a lack of skilled personnel with experience in data science, artificial intelligence, and financial crime analysis. This resource gap can delay adoption, limit the expansion of solutions, and hinder the continued development of SupTech's capabilities.
