Thai financial institutions warned of above-average AI fraud risks

Thai financial institutions may face higher-than-average risks from AI-driven fraud as artificial intelligence reshapes financial crime and makes scams faster, more automated and harder to detect, according to a new survey by BioCatch.

The survey found that 84% of banking executives worldwide view AI agents as a major vulnerability that could be exploited by financial criminals over the next 12 months.

BioCatch surveyed 1,440 executives responsible for fraud management, anti-money laundering, risk management and governance across 25 countries. In Thailand, the survey covered 80 senior banking executives and specialists, all of whom identified AI agents as the top risk the financial industry needs to monitor over the coming year.

The findings show how quickly AI is changing the fraud landscape for banks. AI agents and agentic AI systems are creating new challenges for financial institutions because they can automate attacks, imitate legitimate users and make suspicious activity more difficult to distinguish from normal digital behaviour.

BioCatch chief executive Gadi Mazor said the wider use of AI across e-commerce and financial services was transforming the way financial crime is carried out. He said businesses now need verification processes that go beyond conventional identity checks and are able to assess user behaviour, intent and trustworthiness in greater depth.

The survey found that attempted fraud is rising globally. The share of organisations reporting an increase in fraud attempts climbed from 71% in 2025 to 81% in 2026. At the same time, the proportion reporting higher fraud losses from the previous year rose from 59% to 76%.

The financial damage is also significant. Nearly half of global respondents said their organisations lost more than US$10 million a year to fraud. One in five reported annual fraud losses of more than US$25 million, while 5% said losses exceeded US$50 million.

Thailand appears to be facing an even sharper rise in risk. Among Thai banking executives surveyed by BioCatch, 88% said fraud losses at their organisations had increased from the previous year, higher than the global average of 76%.

A further 49% of Thai respondents said their organisations lost more than US$10 million a year to fraud, underlining the scale of the financial threat now facing the country’s banking sector.

The volume of attempted fraud is also increasing. In Thailand, 96% of respondents said fraud attempts were continuing to rise. The same proportion said AI had made fraud techniques more complex, compared with the global average of 88%.

Agentic AI and automated phishing have emerged as two of the clearest areas of concern for Thai banks. BioCatch found that 93% of Thai banks had already encountered attacks involving agentic AI, above the global average of 80%.

Automated phishing was also a major threat, affecting 61% of Thai banks, compared with the global average of 48%.

Thai banking executives also showed higher levels of concern than their global peers over the difficulty of responding to AI-related threats. Some 94% of Thai respondents said distinguishing legitimate AI agents from malicious AI agents was difficult or extremely difficult, far above the global average of 72%.

The rapid growth of fraud across the region has added to the concern. BioCatch said 84% of Thai respondents were highly worried about the speed at which fraud was increasing, compared with 76% globally.

The findings suggest that stronger cooperation between financial institutions will be critical as fraud becomes more automated and harder to trace. More than 56% of the Thai banking executives surveyed were at C-suite level, and many saw industry-wide intelligence sharing as essential to improving fraud prevention.

In Thailand, 96% of respondents said information sharing between banks would significantly strengthen efforts to prevent fraud and financial crime, compared with the global average of 85%.

Real-time insight into destination accounts was also seen as a key tool in stopping scams. Some 93% of Thai respondents said access to destination-account intelligence during interbank transactions would directly improve banks’ ability to detect and prevent scams, above the global average of 86%.

Despite the heightened risk environment, the survey also identified one relative strength in Thailand’s financial system: earlier detection of mule accounts.

Only 14% of Thai banking executives said their banks usually detected mule accounts after money had already been transferred out of the system. That was much lower than the global average of 31%, suggesting Thai institutions may be identifying suspicious accounts earlier than many international counterparts.

Customer trust remains another major pressure point for banks worldwide. BioCatch said more than 96% of global respondents reported that their organisations tracked customer losses linked to fraud or scam experiences.

At the same time, 39% of respondents said customer loss was one of the main reasons their organisations were investing in stronger fraud-prevention systems.

However, stronger fraud controls can also create friction with customers. Some 68% of global banking executives said fraud-prevention measures and reimbursement policies could themselves contribute to customer losses.

Among those respondents, 56% believed customers left because they were not compensated for fraud losses, while 44% said customers stopped using services because security checks made everyday transactions more inconvenient.

The survey points to a difficult balancing act for banks. Financial institutions need to strengthen defences against AI-powered financial crime while keeping digital banking services fast, convenient and trusted.

For Thailand, where banking executives reported higher-than-average fraud attempts, fraud losses and concern over AI-related threats, the pressure is likely to intensify. As criminals adopt more advanced AI tools, banks will need to improve detection, intelligence sharing and destination-account screening without disrupting customers’ everyday banking experience.

BioCatch , Bangkokbiznews