Deepfakes are no longer a niche concern. They are fuelling scams across Asia Pacific, from Singapore to Hong Kong, and eroding public trust in financial institutions. On Industry Insight, Christophe Barel, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), explains why AI-powered fraud is now a systemic risk to the region’s financial sector. He shares how phishing and synthetic identities are evolving, why fraud cases have surged by over 1,500% in Singapore, and what happens when consumer confidence in banks starts to crack. This is Part 1 of our special series on deepfake fraud focusing on the industry-wide risks and why collective defense is critical to safeguarding digital finance.

(*Part 2 of this deepfake fraud series, 'Biometrics & Liveness: Securing digital identity against deepfakes' focuses on the technology protecting digital identity)