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How To Tackle the Critical AML Challenges in the Philippines
The state of financial crime compliance in the Philippines is a story of progress mixed with pressing challenges. On the one hand, the country has taken meaningful steps forward, particularly in tightening regulations in critical sectors like banking and remittance services. Yet, the shadow of financial crime looms large, with persistent risks in areas such as terrorist financing, online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC), money mule activities, account takeover fraud, and illegal gambling. These are not just abstract threats—they are real, tangible issues that exploit gaps in the current regulatory framework, threatening to undermine the stability of the nation’s financial system.This whitepaper, authored by the sharpest minds in the Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) Ecosystem, delves deep into these challenges. These experts have meticulously analyzed a series of publications by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) since 2021, scrutinizing everything from National Risk Assessments (NRA) to detailed AML/CFT guidelines. What emerges is a comprehensive view of where the Philippines stands—and more importantly, where it needs to go.Please fill in your details to download the whitepaper.
Our Thought Leadership Guides
Q4 2025 FinCrime Landscape Report | Australia
The Q4 2025 Australia Financial Crime Landscape Report highlights a clear shift from isolated fraud events to coordinated, cross-platform schemes that exploit digital speed, institutional trust, and legitimate financial products. Financial crime during the quarter increasingly relied on routine processes across payments, gambling platforms, and corporate workflows to disguise illicit value flows.
Two dominant themes shaped the quarter: online gambling–enabled laundering and persistent, adaptive account takeover (ATO) fraud. Criminal actors used low-risk betting patterns, prepaid instruments, and rapid withdrawal cycles to convert illicit funds into apparently legitimate winnings. At the same time, ATO schemes targeted payroll systems, supplier payment processes, and corporate approval hierarchies to divert and layer funds across domestic and cross-border rails.
These developments reflect a broader systemic challenge: ordinary financial activity can be structured into credible laundering pathways that closely resemble legitimate behaviour. Insights in this report are derived from scenario analysis conducted through the AFC Ecosystem, reflecting real-world observations shared by financial crime professionals across Australia’s banking and payments sector.
Q4 2025 FinCrime Landscape Report | Philippines
The Q4 2025 Philippines Financial Crime Landscape Report highlights a marked shift in how corruption-linked financial crime manifests across the country’s public-works and infrastructure sector.
Rather than isolated cases of tender manipulation or inflated billing, financial crime observed during the quarter reflects systemically embedded practices that begin upstream, at the budget formulation and appropriation stage, before flowing through complex procurement, subcontracting, and payment networks. These patterns increasingly resemble legitimate infrastructure activity, making detection significantly more challenging for financial institutions.
Insights in this report are derived from analysis conducted through the AFC Ecosystem in collaboration with ABCOMP, reflecting real-world observations shared by compliance professionals operating across the Philippine banking sector.
Q3 2025 FinCrime Landscape Report | Australia
The Q3 2025 FinCrime Landscape Report: Australia analyses how emerging technologies and real-time payment systems are redefining financial crime risks. Developed in collaboration with experts from the AFC Ecosystem, the report highlights two dominant threats — deepfake-enabled scams and account takeover (ATO) fraud — and their evolution into full-fledged laundering pipelines. It provides detailed scenarios, transaction-level red flags, and actionable recommendations to help financial institutions strengthen their defences and detect fraud with greater accuracy and speed.
Q4 2025 FinCrime Landscape Report | Australia
The Q4 2025 Australia Financial Crime Landscape Report highlights a clear shift from isolated fraud events to coordinated, cross-platform schemes that exploit digital speed, institutional trust, and legitimate financial products. Financial crime during the quarter increasingly relied on routine processes across payments, gambling platforms, and corporate workflows to disguise illicit value flows.
Two dominant themes shaped the quarter: online gambling–enabled laundering and persistent, adaptive account takeover (ATO) fraud. Criminal actors used low-risk betting patterns, prepaid instruments, and rapid withdrawal cycles to convert illicit funds into apparently legitimate winnings. At the same time, ATO schemes targeted payroll systems, supplier payment processes, and corporate approval hierarchies to divert and layer funds across domestic and cross-border rails.
These developments reflect a broader systemic challenge: ordinary financial activity can be structured into credible laundering pathways that closely resemble legitimate behaviour. Insights in this report are derived from scenario analysis conducted through the AFC Ecosystem, reflecting real-world observations shared by financial crime professionals across Australia’s banking and payments sector.
Q4 2025 FinCrime Landscape Report | Philippines
The Q4 2025 Philippines Financial Crime Landscape Report highlights a marked shift in how corruption-linked financial crime manifests across the country’s public-works and infrastructure sector.
Rather than isolated cases of tender manipulation or inflated billing, financial crime observed during the quarter reflects systemically embedded practices that begin upstream, at the budget formulation and appropriation stage, before flowing through complex procurement, subcontracting, and payment networks. These patterns increasingly resemble legitimate infrastructure activity, making detection significantly more challenging for financial institutions.
Insights in this report are derived from analysis conducted through the AFC Ecosystem in collaboration with ABCOMP, reflecting real-world observations shared by compliance professionals operating across the Philippine banking sector.
Q3 2025 FinCrime Landscape Report | Australia
The Q3 2025 FinCrime Landscape Report: Australia analyses how emerging technologies and real-time payment systems are redefining financial crime risks. Developed in collaboration with experts from the AFC Ecosystem, the report highlights two dominant threats — deepfake-enabled scams and account takeover (ATO) fraud — and their evolution into full-fledged laundering pipelines. It provides detailed scenarios, transaction-level red flags, and actionable recommendations to help financial institutions strengthen their defences and detect fraud with greater accuracy and speed.