While summer vacation may officially be over for most of us, developments in financial crime prevention certainly aren't.
AMLA continues to release updates and technical standards for the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), while systematic financial crime continues to put financial institutions and their customers at risk.
In this quarterly update, you’ll learn more about what has happened at Trapets during the first half of 2026 and what we’re seeing across the Nordic market: from technology consolidation and real-time monitoring to AMLR readiness at the board level.
New sales double in the first half of 2026
Trapets has more than doubled its new sales in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year.
Behind this growth is a broader change in what financial institutions are looking for: to reduce complexity while maintaining effective systems for risk intelligence and financial crime prevention.
“Consolidation of technology has become a risk decision”, says Gabriella Bussien, CEO at Trapets. “When compliance leaders come to us now, a new feature or a new product isn’t their top priority. They’re rather focused on finding a partner who owns the whole picture and the outcome that comes with it.”
3 trends driving compliance forward
In many of our customer conversations, we’ve noticed three main decisions taking place across compliance: consolidation of technology, the importance of real-time in transaction monitoring, and AMLR at the board level. Here’s what we’re seeing across the market on each one.
1. Financial institutions move away from fragmented AML systems
For years, compliance functions grew the way most things grow under pressure: one tool at a time to solve one problem.
A screening solution addressed one problem; transaction monitoring addressed another. As needs and regulations evolved, KYC processes and additional data sources were added later on.
This resulted in a fragmented AML environment and a growing operational and governance burden. This also made it harder to apply and launch AI.
We see institutions taking a different path. Companies that chose Trapets this year, including banks, credit institutions, and fund managers across the Nordics, brought transaction monitoring, screening, and KYC on one platform, with one data model, one audit trail, and one vendor for the overall solution.
Read more: Max Matthiessen centralises AML with Trapets for AMLR
On a single platform, AI can draw on the full customer and transaction history at once, analysing risk patterns that can be hard to identify when the same data sits in multiple different systems.
If you’re considering where the financial crime budget should go, this is the business case worth thinking about: fewer systems to govern, fewer contracts to audit, and a clearer line of accountability when regulators ask questions.
2. Real-time becomes the standard for effective compliance
Instant payments move in seconds. A monitoring system that reviews transactions only after they’ve been completed can tell you what happened, but it cannot stop the transaction before settlement.
We’re seeing this play out directly with our customers. Those who went live with real-time transaction validation during the first half of 2026 can identify suspicious payments before they settle, backed by round-the-clock operational support.
"Speed used to be the feature institutions paid extra for," Bussien notes. "Now it's a demand they expect from any vendor claiming to protect them. That shift alone has changed every conversation we're having with the market."
Read more: How real-time screening defines modern compliance
Implementing real-time in your compliance systems can reduce the risk of detecting illicit activity only after the institution has already been exposed.
3. AMLR is becoming a board-level question
We see AMLR climbing the agenda at Nordic institutions, moving from a compliance department only to a board-level one. Institutions are now considering whether their current AML environment can adapt to the upcoming regulatory requirements without another significant technology rebuild.
Read more: Report - How prepared are financial institutions for AMLR?
Trapets has built its product roadmap around AMLR and continues to publish practical guidance, drawing on two decades of Nordic regulatory experience.
“Since we’ve been operating for over 20 years, we’re used to adapting our technology around upcoming regulations and changes. This experience has been critical when a customer needs a fast, confident answer”, says Bussien.
What it means for the institutions still deciding
If you’re considering investing in risk intelligence, the first half of 2026 draws a simple conclusion: the Nordic institutions moving fastest on financial crime prevention choose to consolidate technology.
“Our role is to make sure the institutions doing the hard work of protecting the financial system have a stable partner who reduces their business risks and who’s been around long enough to be trusted for the next 20 years too,” says Bussien.