For banks and credit unions, growth increasingly depends on how well they manage the risks surrounding it. Fraud, regulatory complexity, cyber threats and changing customer expectations can turn expansion into an operational liability without the right controls. ProSight Financial Association is using its first Impact Report to outline how it supports financial-services leaders across risk, compliance, fraud, retail banking and commercial banking as institutions navigate that environment.

Financial institutions have traditionally treated risk management as a defensive function. That distinction is becoming harder to maintain.

As banks expand digital services, adopt new technologies and respond to increasingly sophisticated fraud, risk and compliance have become closely tied to product development, customer experience and long-term growth.

That is the backdrop for ProSight Financial Association’s first Impact Report.

The organization says the report details its work supporting banks and credit unions through industry research, professional education, analytics, events and specialized tools focused on risk, compliance and fraud management.

ProSight was formed from the legacy organizations BAI and RMA, giving it a combined history spanning more than a century. Today, it operates as a non-lobbying association serving professionals across risk, compliance, fraud, retail banking and commercial banking.

The report is less significant as a corporate milestone than as a reflection of where financial institutions are putting their attention.

The banking industry’s technology agenda has expanded dramatically. Digital banking, artificial intelligence, instant payments and open banking can create new revenue opportunities, but each also introduces operational, regulatory and security considerations.

The result is a shift toward viewing risk management as part of the infrastructure required to innovate.

Fraud is a particularly visible example.

The Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, up 25% from the previous year. Investment scams alone accounted for $5.7 billion in reported losses. While those figures cover consumer fraud broadly rather than bank-specific losses, they demonstrate the scale of the environment in which financial institutions are expected to detect suspicious activity and protect customers. (ftc.gov)

Banks face an increasingly difficult balancing act.

Controls that are too weak expose institutions to fraud and regulatory risk. Controls that are too aggressive can generate false positives, frustrate legitimate customers and make digital services harder to use.

That is turning fraud prevention and compliance into technology problems as much as policy problems.

Artificial intelligence is adding another layer.

Banks are exploring AI for fraud detection, customer service, credit decisions, document processing and compliance monitoring. At the same time, institutions need governance frameworks that address model risk, data quality, explainability, cybersecurity and regulatory expectations.

The Federal Reserve, OCC and FDIC have all emphasized the importance of sound risk management as banks adopt emerging technologies.

This is where industry associations can occupy a different position from technology vendors.

A vendor can sell a fraud platform, compliance system or analytics product. An association can provide peer networks, education and shared practices that help executives understand how other institutions are approaching similar problems.

ProSight says its work is organized around three areas: connecting financial-services leaders, providing training and insights, and delivering tools and resources designed to support decision-making.

That model reflects a broader trend in financial-services infrastructure: institutional knowledge is becoming an operational asset.

The pace of change makes it difficult for individual banks to develop every capability internally. Peer groups, benchmarking, research and professional training can help smaller and midsized institutions gain access to expertise that would otherwise require significant investment.

This matters particularly for community banks and credit unions.

Large financial institutions can dedicate substantial teams to regulatory affairs, fraud analytics, model governance and cybersecurity. Smaller organizations face many of the same regulatory obligations but typically operate with fewer resources.

Shared expertise and purpose-built tools can therefore help narrow part of that capability gap.

ProSight’s focus also spans both retail and commercial banking, two areas where the risk profile is changing quickly.

Retail banks are dealing with account takeover, payment fraud, identity theft and increasingly sophisticated social-engineering attacks. Commercial banks face different challenges, including business email compromise, payment fraud, credit exposure and third-party risk.

Meanwhile, faster payment infrastructure is shortening the window in which suspicious transactions can be identified and stopped.

The introduction of instant-payment systems such as the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service illustrates the challenge. Faster settlement can improve the customer experience and reduce payment friction, but it also places greater pressure on institutions to detect fraudulent transactions before settlement occurs.

That makes real-time risk intelligence increasingly important.

The same principle applies to compliance.

Financial institutions operate under overlapping requirements covering anti-money-laundering controls, consumer protection, privacy, cybersecurity and operational resilience. As banking becomes more digital and interconnected, compliance teams increasingly depend on data, analytics and automated workflows.

The technology stack supporting those functions is consequently becoming part of a bank’s broader digital infrastructure.

This is why ProSight’s emphasis on risk, compliance and fraud management is relevant beyond professional development.

The industry is moving toward a model in which growth, technology and risk management have to be designed together.

A new digital product cannot be evaluated only on its revenue potential. Banks also have to consider fraud exposure, regulatory obligations, data governance, third-party dependencies and customer protection.

That changes the role of risk executives.

Chief risk officers, compliance leaders and fraud teams increasingly participate in technology decisions that once belonged primarily to product or IT departments. Their expertise can determine whether a bank can safely deploy a new payment service, AI system or digital lending product.

The demand for that expertise is unlikely to decline.

Financial institutions are simultaneously dealing with AI adoption, faster payments, increasingly digital customer relationships and sophisticated financial crime. The result is a banking environment where institutional resilience depends on both technology and organizational knowledge.

ProSight’s first Impact Report therefore provides a snapshot of an industry becoming more collaborative around those challenges.

The competitive advantage for banks may not come from eliminating risk—that is impossible. It may come from identifying risks earlier, sharing intelligence faster and building controls into financial products before problems reach customers.

In that environment, risk and compliance are no longer simply brakes on innovation.

They are increasingly part of the infrastructure that makes sustainable banking growth possible.

Market Landscape

Banking risk infrastructure is expanding alongside digital financial services.

The market increasingly includes:

• Fraud prevention: AI-assisted transaction monitoring, identity verification and behavioral analytics.
• RegTech: Automated compliance monitoring, reporting and regulatory workflows.
• Risk analytics: Data platforms for credit, liquidity, operational and enterprise risk.
• Cybersecurity: Identity, access management and threat detection for increasingly digital banks.
• Professional intelligence: Research, benchmarking, training and peer networks for financial-services executives.

The convergence of these categories is significant. A bank’s risk function increasingly depends on the same data and technology infrastructure used by its digital products.

For smaller institutions, external expertise and shared industry resources can be particularly valuable because they provide access to specialized knowledge without requiring every capability to be built internally.

Top Insights

• ProSight’s first Impact Report highlights risk, compliance and fraud management as increasingly important foundations for sustainable financial-services growth.
• The association serves banking professionals across risk, compliance, fraud, retail and commercial banking following the integration of BAI and RMA.
• Rising fraud losses are increasing pressure on banks to improve detection while minimizing false positives and customer friction.
• AI, instant payments and digital banking are making risk management increasingly dependent on data, analytics and technology infrastructure.
• Industry collaboration, professional education and shared intelligence can help smaller banks and credit unions navigate increasingly complex risks.

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