The CEO Agenda: 3 Imperatives for Financial Institutions in 2025

In 2025, financial institutions worldwide are feeling the heat from mounting compliance challenges. New regulations are emerging across multiple jurisdictions, enforcement actions remain a persistent threat, and advancing technologies are creating fresh vulnerabilities—both for regulated and unregulated firms.

On top of that, increasingly sophisticated fraudsters are testing the limits of financial security, pushing firms to adapt quickly or risk severe financial and reputational damage.

To understand the regulatory landscape and how it's evolving, Vixio surveyed 127 payments organizations worldwide, where deep dive into a subsection of FS. The responses were clear: the top three priorities in 2025 are fraud prevention and detection, data protection and privacy, and cybersecurity. 

Fraud Prevention and Detection 

Financial crime remains a top concern for payments organizations worldwide. Of those we surveyed, 26.8 percent put it among their top three priorities for 2025. In addition, nearly a quarter (23.6 percent) identified financial crime and fraud as their regulator’s likely top priority for the coming year.

There’s a technological arms race underway as bad actors embrace the use of AI to execute highly sophisticated social engineering schemes, leading to billions in losses - not to mention the devastating emotional toll on victims.

Regulators are aware of this and are increasingly introducing stricter rules to ensure that customers are better protected from fraudsters. 

In many cases, they’re expanding accountability beyond FIs to the digital channels commonly used in scam initiation, such as telecommunications and social media platforms.

Some examples of regulators seeking to curb fraud include: 

• Australia’s Scam Prevention Framework is a regulatory effort to curb fraud beyond traditional financial services.
• The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introduced new reimbursement rules requiring payments firms to refund victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud and split responsibility 50/50 between the institution that sent the scammed funds and the institution that received them.
• The EU’s new Verification of Payee (VoP) protocols come into effect in October 2025, so EU institutions will need to have interoperable VoP solutions in place that are easy for their customers to understand.

What can firms do? 

Given the regulatory focus and the stakes for both companies and individuals, firms must stay ahead by:

• Closely monitoring regulatory updates and ensuring compliance with new fraud prevention mandates. 
• Prioritizing fraud prevention as a core operational goal—not just a compliance requirement- and collaborating with Big Tech to share data around consumer behaviors and consumption patterns.
• Accelerating investment in fraud detection tools like advanced analytics, machine learning, and real-time transaction monitoring to detect irregularities earlier in the payment cycle. 

Consumer trust is paramount. If customers lose trust in firms - or the sector - they will take their business elsewhere. 

Data Protection and Privacy 

More than a quarter (28.3%) of surveyed firms identified compliance with data protection and privacy laws as a top priority for 2025. 

Despite the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being in effect since 2018, many organizations worldwide still struggle with its requirements. High-profile fines serve as stark reminders of the risks:

• In October 2024, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) fined Ibercaja Banco €300,000 for violating the GDPR after the bank accessed personal data without authorisation. 
• In September 2024, Poland’s Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) fined mBank the equivalent of $1m for failing to notify customers about a data breach that occurred on June 30, 2022.

Besides heavy fines, firms run the risk that remedial action and negative headlines can greatly impact their reputations.

In a wider sense, consumer awareness of data privacy is growing. As individuals better understand how their data is used—and misused—pressure on financial institutions to maintain transparency is increasing.

What can firms do? 

To maintain compliance and consumer trust with data protection and privacy firms should:

• Ensure they have clearly articulated data protection policies embedded within their organisation's processes. 
• Prioritize data protection and don’t be complacent—the fines are big, and the reputational damage could be brutal.
• Consider how customers perceive their data processes. If they think they are being exploited, they may look elsewhere. 

Cybersecurity and ICT Resilience 

Cybersecurity and information and communication technology (ICT) was the top priority for firms surveyed, with 32.3% citing as a concern for 2025. 

Given that FIs rely on complex, interconnected systems, any ICT failure has the potential to disrupt critical operations such as payment processing and online banking, directly affecting customers and revenues. 

For example, in July 2024, organisations worldwide faced service disruptions caused by a failed update to a CrowdStrike cybersecurity software known as Falcon Sensor. 

The failed update led to widespread problems with Microsoft Windows computers running the software, affecting business ICT systems in nearly every country and sector. Around 8.5m computers crashed, causing $5.4bn in damages for the Fortune 500 alone. 

In response, regulators have started focusing on this area: 

• DORA is now in force in the EU from January 17, 2025, with applications across the industry. The regulation is intended to enhance resilience in the EU financial sector by raising standards for risk management and ICT operations.
• In the UK, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) rules on operational resilience come into effect on March 31, 2025. Firms will be expected to be able to prevent disruption, ensure that their systems and processes continue to operate during disruptions, and rapidly return services to normal once the disruption is over. 

What can firms do? 

With regulators worldwide enforcing the new rules on operational resilience, firms must get ahead by:

• Evaluating vulnerabilities, including overreliance on ICT providers to help prevent disruptions. 
• Developing contingency plans for disruptions. 
• Considering using AI tools – cyber attackers are, and it may be that the most effective way to counter AI cybersecurity threats is via defensive AI.

Recognise that what worked yesterday will not be enough to keep you safe tomorrow, and firms will need to continually adapt to keep ahead of cybersecurity threats. 

With regulatory scrutiny intensifying and financial crime evolving, financial institutions must be proactive in 2025. Compliance is no longer just about meeting minimum requirements—it’s about safeguarding customers, protecting reputations, and maintaining business continuity.

By prioritising fraud prevention, data protection, and cybersecurity, financial leaders can ensure resilience in an increasingly complex and high-stakes environment.