Nasdaq Verafin 2026: financial crime now costing $4.4 trillion | GSE featured

March 12, 2026 — Nasdaq Verafin has released its 2026 Global Financial Crime Report, revealing that illicit financial activity has reached a staggering $4.4 trillion globally. This represents a $1.3 trillion increase since 2023, driven by the "industrialization" of fraud through AI-powered threats and highly coordinated criminal networks.

The report highlights that nearly 90% of financial professionals have observed a rise in AI-driven attacks, prompting a massive shift toward cross-sector collaboration to disrupt these criminal ecosystems.

The Global Signal Exchange (GSE) is featured as a critical solution in this fight, operating as a global clearinghouse for scam and fraud signals. Founded through a partnership between Google, the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), and Oxford Information Labs Research (OXIL Research), the GSE acts as a "parallel track" to traditional banking systems, allowing for the real-time sharing of intelligence across the open internet.

By treating fraud signals as shared resources for public protection rather than proprietary assets, the GSE enables institutions to take swift, collective action against transnational criminal groups.

“For GASA, the GSE represents more than a technical platform. It is proof that real-time, cross- sector collaboration is possible and that data, when shared responsibly, can serve as infrastructure for consumer protection at global scale.”