What’s Shaping Insurance AML Compliance in 2025 and Beyond
- FinScan
- Aug 12
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 13
As financial crime risks grow more complex, insurers face a new era of compliance pressure, from intensifying sanctions expectations and opaque cross-border transactions to the uncertain promises of AI. In our recent webinar, “Financial Crime Risk Reality Check: How Insurers Stay Resilient in a Changing World,” experts from insurance, compliance, technology, and legal sectors came together to unpack the evolving risk landscape and share hard-won lessons for building more resilient compliance frameworks.
The panel included Steve Marshall, Director of Advisory Services at FinScan (moderator), Huhnsik Chung, Partner at ArentFox Schiff LLP, Richard McDermott, Sanctions Program Director at AmTrust Financial Services, and Adrian Murray, Founder and CEO of Fisent Technologies.
Here are five key takeaways from their discussion.
1. Transparency is the core challenge—and the end goal
Whether dealing with fraudulent claims, third-party payments, or bogus letters of credit like the Vesttoo scandal, the panelists agreed that transparency is both the problem and the solution.
Financial crime thrives in opacity, especially in complex or layered insurance structures. Yet insurers are also hampered by limited visibility into customer data, ownership structures, and transactions, particularly when international jurisdictions or digital assets are involved.
As Huhnsik Chung noted, “If you have clarity and transparency, you can see through all the opaqueness of structures. The problem is you can’t.”
To fight financial crime, insurers must prioritize greater transparency, both internally across business lines and externally in how they vet partners, policies, and payments.
2. AI should do more than just speed things up
AI can help insurers better assess and explain financial crime risks, from validating documents to identifying inconsistencies across transactions. As Adrian Murray explained, “What was previously not practical or possible with the technology a couple of years ago is both practical and very possible today.”
However, the panel stressed a critical distinction: AI should support decision-making, not replace it. Generative AI is strong at interpreting nuance (such as distinguishing a fine from an arrest), while traditional statistical models excel at recognizing patterns. But both need human oversight.
Insurers should match the right AI capabilities to the right problems, and design models for explainability as well as efficiency.
3. Governance (and technology) must span silos
Despite years of effort, functional silos still plague many insurers, limiting risk visibility across underwriting, claims, compliance, and IT. Breaking those down, said the panel, requires executive leadership and integrated systems that enable consistent processes across departments.
“Silos don’t work anymore. You have to work across the organization and with all the different areas,” affirmed Richard McDermott.
Embedding risk governance into business operations, supported by shared platforms and AI tools, can help unify fragmented teams and processes.
4. Regulatory change is constant. Staying ahead means staying engaged
With sanctions, digital assets, and AI triggering new guidance and expectations, managing regulatory change is a growing challenge. The panel urged attendees to actively monitor updates, leverage industry notifications, and work closely with trusted partners and technology providers to keep up.
“Sometimes the easiest thing is making sure you’re signed up for the right notifications.”
McDermott agrees that staying on top of what regulations are coming out there is simple: “Sometimes the easiest thing is making sure you’re signed up for the right notifications.”
Insurance compliance leaders should treat regulatory readiness as a continuous function—not just a reactive one—and prepare for rising regulatory expectations around AI governance and risk management.
5. Legal defensibility starts with board-level awareness
“As a board member, you have the obligation to be on top of the technology developments and assess how those can impact your enterprise”
In a world of rapid innovation and regulatory scrutiny, legal accountability extends to the boardroom. Board members must understand their fiduciary duties in the context of emerging technologies, and ensure the organization is asking the right questions about risk, transparency, and governance.
“As a board member, you have the obligation to be on top of the technology developments and assess how those can impact your enterprise,” Chung pointed out.
Boards must be proactive stewards of compliance and technology risk by aligning business judgment with evolving best practices for preventing financial crime.
Looking ahead: compliance readiness is a moving target
As our panelists made clear, the insurance industry is at a critical inflection point. Compliance teams must adapt to a new landscape of global risk, fragmented data, and powerful technology tools. The insurers who thrive will be those who actively manage complexity, embrace robust risk management, strengthen governance, and stay ahead of both the bad actors and the regulatory curve.
Risk visibility, AI adoption, data transparency, and board engagement are no longer optional. They are table stakes for staying competitive, compliant, and resilient. The firms that lead will be the ones investing in technology, governance, and cross-functional collaboration to help prepare them for whatever comes tomorrow.
Missed the webinar?
Watch the full replay to dig deeper into the insights shared.
