ARIFAC: Financial sector launches new alliance to fight money laundering, online scams

Amid rising concerns over cyber-enabled fraud, terror financing, sanctions evasion and cryptocurrency-linked crimes, India's financial sector has launched a new collaborative platform to strengthen anti-money laundering compliance and improve coordination among reporting entities, regulators, and enforcement agencies.

The initiative is aimed at strengthening India's anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) framework and has been launched with the formation of the Alliance of Reporting Entities in AML/CFT (ARIFAC).

The platform has been established as a private-sector partnership to enhance collaboration among reporting entities covered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), improve compliance standards and support the country's efforts to combat financial crime.

The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) will serve as an observer to the initiative, while the secretariat will be jointly managed by the Payments Council of India and the Fintech Convergence Council.

ARIFAC will bring together reporting entities from across the financial sector, including banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), payment system operators, securities market intermediaries, insurance companies, virtual digital asset service providers, cooperative institutions, and other organisations subject to PMLA requirements.

The alliance aims to facilitate knowledge-sharing, strengthen institutional capabilities and promote greater coordination among stakeholders in the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing, and related financial crimes.

According to the organisers, the initiative comes at a time when financial crimes are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with emerging risks linked to cyber fraud, sanctions evasion, mule accounts, and digital assets.

ARIFAC's activities will focus on five key areas: capacity building, cross-sector collaboration, regulatory engagement, development of typologies and best practices, and international representation.

As part of its capacity-building efforts, the alliance will organise training programmes, certification courses, workshops and continuous learning initiatives for compliance, risk management, audit, and operational teams across reporting entities.

The platform will also facilitate structured engagement with regulators, supervisory authorities and law enforcement agencies to improve understanding of regulatory expectations and strengthen compliance outcomes.

Industry-led working groups will be established to address priority areas such as enhanced due diligence, sanctions screening, cross-border information sharing, mule account detection, digital banking risks, and virtual digital assets.

These groups will develop practical guidance, typologies, and best-practice frameworks for wider industry adoption.

The alliance said its initiatives are expected to strengthen AML/CFT awareness, improve compliance maturity across sectors and support India's commitment to maintaining a robust and globally aligned financial crime prevention framework.

The Payments Council of India, established in 2013, represents India's regulated non-bank payments industry, while the Fintech Convergence Council represents stakeholders across fintech, banking, financial services and technology sectors.