Vixio Finds Enforcement Activity Doubled in Europe from 2024 to 2025, AML Failings Main Cause

Vixio, a leading provider of regulatory intelligence and change management solutions, released its 2025 Enforcement Outlook, which found that financial services enforcement from regulators nearly doubled from 2024 to 2025, suggesting firms in the region have yet to embed a genuine compliance-first culture. Furthermore, nearly one-fourth of European enforcement actions were related to AML violations.

“In H1 2025, regulators around the world identified failures in key areas such as customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, suspicious activity reporting and politically exposed person (PEP) screening, and imposed penalties accordingly,” said John Gidla, Head of Global Regulatory Research & Analysis, Vixio.

“Firms should factor these findings into their compliance reviews and avoid scaling back effective, well-resourced programmes. As enforcement evolves across regions, those organisations that embed resilience, transparency and accountability into their operations will be best placed to navigate the shifting regulatory landscape.”

Europe: The Region with the Most Active Regulators

Europe recorded the highest enforcement activity in H1 2025, with 123 actions (compared with 48 in Asia-Pacific and 46 in North America). This was almost double the 67 cases in H1 2024, suggesting firms in the region have yet to embed a genuine compliance-first culture.

Out of these, more than half of the entities penalised were banks, likely because they are more established and numerous. Banks were also the most hit with enforcement actions last year, showing a need for the sector to still embed a compliance-first culture.

This level of enforcement in Europe suggests that the industry in the region is highly mature, and is a stark reminder for banks and financial services firms operating in the EU and UK to stay on top of compliance.

AML Failings: The Most Common Breach

Globally, anti-money laundering (AML) failings were the most common breach in H1 2025. This reflects a global trend, with AML-related updates now representing an increasingly significant proportion of regulatory activity in jurisdictions worldwide.

As financial crime prevention rises to the top of supervisory authorities’ agendas, organisations in high-risk sectors like banking and payments must reassess their AML compliance frameworks, as the financial and reputational risks of falling short can be severe.

Financial Penalties: Most Common Enforcement Type

European regulators continued to favour imposing financial penalties in the first half of this year, with fines accounting for 65 percent of enforcement actions. For instance, Barclays was fined £42m for failures in financial crime risks in the UK, and Paysera was fined €400,000 in Lithuania for acquiring an e-money institution without regulatory approval.

Regulators consider fines effective because they have an immediate impact and are fairly straightforward to apply, but various regulators globally also use other enforcement actions, such as licence suspensions and remedial orders.

However, financial penalties decreased from over 80 percent in H1 2024, indicating a potential shift toward a more proactive and preventative regulatory approach. While fines remain a tool for enforcement, the 15 percent year-on-year decline in their use suggests regulators are reserving them as a last resort, applied only when firms fail to address issues or exhibit persistent weaknesses.

To read the full report, including a breakdown of enforcement actions by country and type, visit https://www.vixio.com/research/payments-enforcement-outlook-asia-pacific-europe-and-north-america.

About Vixio

Vixio is the leading provider of regulatory change management and compliance solutions for the highly regulated, global financial services and gambling industries. Its award-winning RegTech platform, featuring the Vixio Workspace workflow capability, combines AI-enhanced technology with unrivalled expert analysis to deliver real-time, actionable intelligence that helps compliance professionals, legal teams, regulators, and business leaders simplify complex regulations, mitigate risk, and unlock growth opportunities.

Founded in 2006, Vixio supports hundreds of customers across 200+ jurisdictions, with insights drawn from over 4 million data points and 1,400+ regulatory authorities.