From growth to governance: insights from FinCrime 2026

At the Nordic-Baltic AML / FinCrime & Tech Conference 2026, Kevin Gerretz, Head of Financial Regulatory at Ellex in Estonia, moderated a roundtable discussion on managing cross-border AML risks in practice.

The panel brought together Matis Mäeker, Head of the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit; Uldis Upenieks, Co-Chair of the ACAMS Baltic Chapter and AFC industry leader; and Kaarel Kuddu, AML/KYC Product Director at Wise, offering perspectives from supervision, industry and financial institutions.

A key theme was how the FinTech era has dissolved the idea of a single “home bank”. Customers now assemble their financial lives across multiple providers, meaning KYC is no longer a linear, relationship-driven process. Instead, it has become fragmented, intermittent and more difficult to manage in practice.

Panellists emphasised that cross-border expansion is not just a scaling exercise, it is a governance challenge. Fragmented rules and differing supervisory expectations require continuous adjustment and alignment of AML frameworks across jurisdictions, particularly in highly interconnected regions such as the Nordics and Baltics.

Looking ahead, the EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) was seen as a step forward in strengthening supervisory convergence. At the same time, the discussion made clear that regulation alone is not enough.

Effective AML depends on stronger collaboration. Financial intelligence units see networks, while service providers see transactions. To meaningfully tackle money laundering and terrorist financing risks, both perspectives must be combined through more risk-based, two-way intelligence sharing that cuts through the volume of today’s suspicious transaction reports.

Ellex continues to advise clients on navigating cross-border AML and financial regulatory requirements, with a focus on practical implementation in an evolving regulatory environment.