A recent report found that AI-generated voice fraud in banking increased nearly 30% in 2025, as cheaper voice-cloning tools made it easier for criminals to impersonate bank employees, customers, and trusted contacts.
At the same time, 72% of financial institutions say cybersecurity risk is persistent or increasing, while 38% report account-holder scams are rising. This is testing consumers’ confidence in their banks’ ability to prevent sophisticated fraud, with trust in banks for fraud protection falling to 45% in 2026—down from 50% in 2025.
Meanwhile, consumers reported $15.9 billion in fraud losses in 2025, up 27% from the previous year.
Fifteen percent of consumers reported fraudulent bank transactions.
Sixty two percent of Americans have encountered fraud or know someone who has in the past 3 years, while 55% expect themselves or someone close to be targeted within the next year.
However, as AI-generated synthetic voices, deepfakes, and identity scams become harder to detect, experts warn that banks cannot treat each fraudulent incident as an isolated event.
Dr. Jeffrey Edwards, the CEO of FFERM Technologies, a financial risk intelligence company, says the smaller banks do not always have the resources to buy a major enterprise platform or bring in a large consulting firm.
Edwards advised banks to rethink fraud prevention when AI enables criminals and fraudsters to convincingly impersonate bank employees and institutions that their customers already trust.
