Fraudsters are moving faster, using better tools, and scaling attacks with a level of sophistication that is becoming harder to detect through traditional controls alone. At the same time, clients expect digital journeys to be smooth, immediate, and secure, leaving wealth managers with a difficult balance to strike.
Reduce friction too much and risk increases. Add too much friction and the client experience suffers.
This tension was at the heart of the recent WealthTech Talks webinar, From Layered Intelligence to AI in Fraud Defence, hosted by The Wealth Mosaic in partnership with LexisNexis® Risk Solutions.
The discussion moderated by Stephen Wall brought together experts from:
- Sheldon West, Head of Data Science Analytics at LexisNexis Risk Solutions;
- Jonathan Giannasi, Regulatory Lead and Solutions Engineer at Resistant AI;
- Iain Gibbons, CEO of FoxTech; and
- David Bryden, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fractyl Consulting.
The webinar is available now to watch on-demand here.
Read on to take a deeper dive on the key topics discussed within the webinar – including protecting the customer at every point of their member journey, AI in fraud prevention, and industry collaboration.
Fraud is no longer confined to one moment in the journey
The webinar opened by examining how fraud has evolved beyond isolated events, with panellists discussing why wealth managers increasingly need to view risk across the entire customer lifecycle rather than at individual touchpoints.
Fraud risk does not sit neatly at onboarding, login, or payment. It moves across the full client lifecycle.
A client may be genuine at the point of onboarding but later fall victim to a scam. A device may appear trusted until behaviour changes. A payment may look routine until it is viewed alongside wider signals. Criminals know this, and they are increasingly exploiting the gaps between processes, teams and systems.
Account takeover and scams remain two of the most pressing threats for private banks and wealth firms. But scams are particularly damaging because the client is often manipulated into authorising the payment themselves. In high-value wealth environments, this can lead to significant losses in a single transaction.
The challenge is no longer simply identifying a fraudulent document or blocking a suspicious login. It is understanding risk in context across identity, behaviour, device intelligence, transactions, and customer activity.
AI has changed the economics of fraud
Fraud itself is not new. What has changed is the speed, scale, and quality of execution. The webinar explored how artificial intelligence (AI) in particular has increased the speed and sophistication of fraud while also giving firms new tools to detect, investigate, and prevent it.
AI is lowering the barriers for criminals. It can help create more convincing documents, generate more persuasive social engineering attempts, and automate activity that would previously have required far more time and resource.
This creates a significant operational challenge. Manual review alone cannot keep pace with the volume and complexity of emerging threats. But automation without oversight introduces its own risks.
That is why the opportunity for firms lies in using AI responsibly – not as a replacement for human expertise, but as a way to strengthen decision-making, prioritise risk, and support teams with better intelligence.
Machine learning can identify patterns across large datasets. Generative models can support document verification and analysis. Agentic AI may help streamline investigations and operational workflows. Used well, these technologies can give firms greater visibility and speed without losing the human judgement needed for complex cases.
Onboarding is only the beginning
Strong fraud defence starts with identity verification, but it cannot stop there. The panellists explored identity verification and onboarding, before broadening the conversation to why continuous monitoring is becoming just as important as getting the first interaction right.
Firms need to understand the wider digital identity behind the applicant – including device signals, behavioural patterns, location intelligence, and known fraud indicators from across the industry.
This layered approach can help identify synthetic, stolen, or manipulated identities earlier, while reducing unnecessary friction for genuine clients.
But the same principle applies beyond onboarding. Wealth managers need to continually reassess risk as clients log in, change account details, initiate payments, or behave in ways that differ from their usual patterns.
KYC can no longer be treated as a one-time exercise. The strongest defence comes from connecting signals across the client lifecycle.
Security and client experience do not have to work against each other
One of the biggest concerns for wealth managers is how to introduce stronger controls without damaging the client relationship. A recurring theme throughout the discussion was how firms can strengthen fraud controls without introducing unnecessary friction – and why getting that balance right is becoming a competitive differentiator.
The answer is not to add friction everywhere. It is to apply the right level of friction at the right moment.
For routine, low-risk activity, the experience should remain smooth. But where risk indicators rise, such as an unusual payment, a new device, or behaviour that does not match the client’s normal pattern, additional verification can protect both the client and the firm.
Handled well, these moments do not have to feel like an inconvenience. If firms can clearly explain why extra checks are needed, they can reinforce trust rather than undermine it.
Collaboration will become a competitive necessity
The conversation concluded by looking beyond individual firms, with panellists exploring how greater collaboration and shared intelligence can help the industry respond to increasingly organised financial crime.
Fraudsters share tactics, test controls, and move quickly between organisations and sectors. To respond effectively, firms need access to broader intelligence – including fraud signals, behavioural trends, and emerging typologies that may not yet be visible within their own customer base.
Industry collaboration, trusted data sharing, and cross-sector intelligence will play an increasingly important role in helping firms spot threats earlier and respond faster.
The firms that act now will be better prepared
Firms need to move from point-in-time checks to continuous risk assessment. From siloed controls to connected intelligence. From reactive investigation to earlier detection and prevention.
The challenge ahead is not simply to adopt more technology. It is to build fraud defence that is intelligent, proportionate, and embedded across the organisation.
For the wealth sector, the stakes are high: protecting clients, safeguarding assets, maintaining trust, and meeting rising regulatory expectations.
The full discussion explores these themes in more detail, including how AI, layered intelligence, and cross-industry collaboration can help firms strengthen fraud defence without compromising the client experience.
Want to watch the webinar in full?
The full webinar, From Layered Intelligence to AI in Fraud Defence is now available to view here.
About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis Risk Solutions is a global leader in data and analytics, providing innovative solutions to help organisations manage financial crime, fraud prevention, compliance, and risk assessment.
As part of RELX Group, a FTSE 100 company, we leverage advanced technology to streamline, enhance, and automate compliance processes across the wealth and investments sector.
With our proprietary financial crime technology and being one of the world’s largest repositories of data, we empower investment firms, trading platforms, and wealth managers to optimise onboarding, fraud detection, and transaction monitoring. Our solutions orchestrate every step of the compliance journey, helping firms scale efficiently while meeting multi-jurisdictional regulatory requirements.
You can take a deeper dive into this subject by downloading LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ eBook, Securing Today, Innovating for Tomorrow With Responsible AI.
About The Wealth Mosaic
The Wealth Mosaic is a UK-headquartered online solution provider directory and knowledge resource, focused specifically on the wealth management industry.
For wealth managers, the buy side of our marketplace, The Wealth Mosaic is designed to enable discovery of key solutions, solution providers and knowledge resources by specific business needs.
For solution providers and vendors, the sell side of our marketplace, The Wealth Mosaic exists to support the positioning, exposure and business development needs of these firms in a more complex and demanding market.
