A significant majority of banking executives in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are sounding the alarm on artificial intelligence, with 86% identifying AI agents as a major looming vulnerability for the coming year. According to a study by fraud prevention firm BioCatch, which surveyed 340 banking leaders across Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, India, and Australia, this same percentage warns that AI has drastically elevated the sophistication of modern scams and fraudulent activities.
The financial toll of these evolving threats is staggering. Nearly half of the surveyed institutions (49%) report losing over $10 million annually to fraud. For many, the losses are even more severe: 22% bleed more than $25 million, 8% surpass $50 million in losses, and a hard-hit 2% lose over $100 million every year.
Compounding the issue is the sheer difficulty of detection. Over three-quarters of respondents (78%) admitted it will be incredibly difficult to separate legitimate, AI-assisted customer actions from malicious, manipulated content. Furthermore, 81% of APAC banking leaders report a rise in overall fraud attempts, while 78% note that their total financial losses from fraud are steadily climbing.
The insights reflect the perspectives of high-level decision-makers. All participants hold manager-level positions or higher within fraud management, anti-money laundering (AML), and risk and compliance functions, with 76% operating at the director level and 38% sitting in their bank’s C-suite.
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