CrowdStrike Report Shows How AI Drives Fintech Cyber Attacks
Holding high-value assets, financial institutions remain prime targets – especially for big game hunting (BGH) cybercriminals seeking fast, high-impact payouts.
Dissecting the many threats facing this sector, CrowdStrike’s 2026 Financial Services Threat Landscape Report underscores a sharp escalation in sophisticated cyberattacks aimed at banks, fintechs and cryptocurrency platforms worldwide.
The report paints an increasingly concerning picture for the industry, with organisations facing a surge in AI-driven deception, digital asset theft and identity-based attacks – threats that are becoming progressively harder to detect.
According to the findings, hands-on-keyboard intrusions targeting financial institutions have risen by 43% globally over the past two years, climbing to 48% across North America.
CrowdStrike attributes much of this increase to threat actors exploiting trusted identities and software-as-a-service applications to circumvent traditional security controls.
“Financial services organisations face threats from every direction and AI is making each of them harder to stop,” says Adam Meyers, Head of Counter Adversary Operations at CrowdStrike.
“The cost to create convincing identities, automate reconnaissance and accelerate credential theft is near zero.”
Klarna Dives into Agentic Commerce with ChatGPT Launch
Known for its leadership at the helm of AI in the BNPL space, Klarna has extended its AI-powered services to ChatGPT.
The Klarna Shopping Search app, currently available in OpenAI’s popular conversational AI ChatGPT ensures that consumers are getting access to Klarna’s extensive merchant network.
In the latest chapter of agentic commerce, consumers can now discover products directly through conversations with AI instead of leaving the app.
Research from Adobe indicates that the future of retail is reshaping, as AI-powered product searches made a significant impact on holiday shopping.
The research notes that in the 2025 holiday season, traffic from AI platforms to retail sites grew to almost 700%.
The shoppers from these platforms had a higher conversion rate of 31%.
Seizing the opportunity demonstrated by the statistics is fintech leader Klarna.
Consolidating the user experience, shoppers do not need to open new tabs, navigate competing sites or reconcile outdated prices, as they are directed through the Klarna Shopping Search app in ChatGPT.
With accessibility in mind, users can continue their conversation as they shop, simply describing what they are looking for.
Shoppers are then met with visual results that indicate availability, up-to-date prices, and offers from merchants within the conversation.
After selecting a product, users are directed to the merchant’s site to complete the purchase.
David Sykes, Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna, says: “ChatGPT is where millions of people already turn when they're figuring out what they want.
“We're plugging our merchant network directly into that moment. A consumer who last week would have spent twenty minutes comparing tabs now gets a real answer in one conversation, creating a more seamless experience from idea to purchase.”
Cloud-Native Risk Management: FIS Launches Risk Suite on AWS
FIS has launched its Enterprise Risk Suite on Amazon Web Services (AWS), marking a shift in how financial institutions deploy and maintain risk management systems.
The move reflects growing demand for cloud-native infrastructure that can support real-time risk monitoring without interrupting operations.
Upgrading risk software has long posed a challenge for banks and financial firms, often forcing them to choose between system continuity and access to the latest capabilities.
By moving the Enterprise Risk Suite to AWS, FIS is aiming to eliminate that trade-off through continuous delivery and automatic updates.
The platform is delivered through a CI/CD model, allowing FIS to manage updates on behalf of clients.
This ensures firms are always running the latest version of the software without needing to pause operations or divert internal resources.
For institutions operating in volatile and tightly regulated markets, this approach addresses a key operational pain point. Rather than scheduling costly and disruptive upgrades, firms can maintain compliance and performance while staying current with evolving risk tools.
Andrés Choussy, President of the Capital Markets at FIS notes: “The move to a cloud-native architecture on AWS showcases our commitment to unlock financial technology across the money lifecycle, and removes the trade-off between staying current and staying operational.
“Our clients can now run the latest, most powerful version of Enterprise Risk Suite at all times, while scaling their risk infrastructure dynamically to meet whatever the market demands.
“This modern framework combined with comprehensive risk coverage enables smarter, faster and more capital-efficient risk management decisions that drive revenue growth.”
Monzo’s FY26 Results Proves Neobank Profitability at Scale
Monzo’s FY26 results are a testament of how it is no longer just one of the UK’s standout challenger banks – it’s becoming one of fintech’s clearest profitability success stories.
The results show the digital bank has reached a new level of maturity, combining rapid customer growth with sustained profits and a more diversified revenue model.
This comes at a time when many neobanks are still working towards consistent returns.
Monzo’s story, however, is an example of a broader shift in what a scalable, sustainable digital bank can look like.
First and foremost, Monzo’s results depict it reaching a milestone few neobanks have: sustained profitability alongside rapid expansion.
The UK-based digital bank reported revenue of £1.7bn (US$2.3bn), up 39% year-on-year, with adjusted pre-tax profit rising 20% to £172.6m (US$231.3m) – its third consecutive year of profitability.
On top of this, Monzo’s gross profit surpassed £1bn (US$1.3bn) for the first time – a clear sign of profitability as well as growth.
This is underpinned by a diversified revenue model.
Monzo’s four core income streams – current account balances, borrowing, payments and wealth – each generated more than £300m (US$401.9m), reducing reliance on interchange or single-product economics.
“We’ve delivered strong, profitable growth while investing in the foundations that will power our future,” says Diana Layfield, Group CEO of Monzo.
“Millions of customers are choosing Monzo for more of their financial lives.
“We’re building on that momentum by delivering more products for personal and business customers, continuing to grow in the UK and bringing Monzo magic to Europe in a way that feels truly local from day one.
“Our mission to make money work for everyone is more relevant than ever and the opportunity ahead has never been greater.”
Akamai: Financial Services Face a Surge in DDoS Threats
Despite all the positives of digital transformation that the financial services are benefitting from, one of the most challenging, critical and important setbacks is the attack surface for cybercriminals it creates.
And this attack surface is only growing.
Akamai’s AI-Empowered Botnets and API Visibility Gaps: Attack Trends in Financial Services State of the Internet (SOTI) Security report paints this picture: that the sector is now the primary target for increasingly sophisticated and sustained distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Akamai’s research highlights a dramatic escalation in both the scale and complexity of attacks targeting banks, payment providers and financial platforms.
Driven by AI-powered botnets and coordinated hacktivist campaigns, DDoS have grown from short-lived disruptions to prolonged, strategic assaults.
The report finds that the median duration of Layers 3 and 4 DDoS attacks against financial services has surged by 738% since 2024.
This shift, the report suggests, shows a move from opportunistic attacks to persistent campaigns designed to overwhelm infrastructure and erode customer trust.
“Cybercriminals and hacktivists continue to escalate DDoS from nuisance attacks to a sustained siege encompassing both hacktivism and cybercrime and financial services are in the crosshairs," says Steve Winterfeld, Advisory CISO of Akamai.
“In addition, the data shows that APIs are increasingly targeted as AI doesn't reduce traditional security risks, it puts them on steroids.
“Fortunately, financial services organisations can leverage the security strategies and best practices detailed in this report."
