Across Europe, financial institutions, regulators and emerging FinTech players are rethinking how they work together to combat financial crime. A growing consensus is emerging: when intelligence can be shared safely and consistently, organisations are not just reacting to threats — they are disrupting them.
This message was underscored repeatedly at Salv’s recent Bridge Community Event, where speakers argued that collaboration is no longer optional for Europe’s financial crime strategy, claims Salv.
The conversation highlighted a central idea: trust remains essential, but trust must also be engineered. This means building systems, culture and routines that allow intelligence to flow reliably, even between organisations that operate under strict regulatory obligations. The Baltics have become Europe’s most compelling example.
Estonia’s long-standing intelligence-sharing culture is shaping thinking well beyond its borders, while Latvia’s closed KYC utility is enabling controlled, structured data exchange between institutions. These developments are timely, as the EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering Regulation — including Article 75 on cross-border information sharing — will require every financial institution to adopt provable, compliant mechanisms by 2027.
Salv CEO Taavi Tamkivi described trust as having two dimensions: the formal and the human. The formal side includes the certifications, audits and compliance standards that reassure partners their data will be handled safely. Salv’s early work securing ISO 27001 accreditation and meeting national licensing requirements has shown how rigorous processes build institutional confidence. But the human side cannot be overlooked. Tamkivi noted that before launching Salv Bridge, he spent significant time meeting regulators, FIUs and data-protection officials in person. “Just being in the same room changed the dynamic,” he said. “When people meet, they start trusting the process.”
The legal landscape also plays a decisive role in enabling collaboration. Edgars Pastars, partner at Cobalt and legal adviser to Finance Latvia, has argued that most organisations stay far below what the law actually permits. He encourages compliance teams to involve lawyers early and empower them to identify paths forward, not reasons to stop. This mindset shift could prove essential as Article 75 begins reshaping expectations across the EU. Coop Pank sanctions and counter-terrorist financing officer Siiri Gräbbi summarised it well: “Have lunch together before you draft the policy.”
Intelligence sharing succeeds only when it is disciplined. Estonian banks using Salv Bridge rely on agreed templates that define what questions can be asked, the language used, and the legal grounds for each request. Audit trails and rapid turnaround times — often within hours — make this collaboration both safe and operationally useful. This model mitigates the dual challenges of GDPR and competition law by focusing on standardisation, documented purpose and measured, proportionate sharing. Estonia’s multi-agency approach has also delivered results, revealing connections that no single institution could detect alone.
The next challenge lies in cross-border cooperation. Criminals move fluidly across jurisdictions, while legislation still moves slowly. Tamkivi emphasised the importance of monitoring “super-nodes” — large FinTech firms that serve millions across Europe and process vast transaction volumes. Connecting with these organisations requires direct engagement rather than new treaties. Early results show promise: when Lithuanian banks joined wider information-sharing networks, their ability to stop fraudulent transfers improved almost immediately.
Article 75 is expected to formalise cross-border exchanges by harmonising legal bases for sharing. Salv’s guidance notes that both the technology and the trust-building frameworks already exist, meaning regulation is likely to evolve in line with current innovation. For leaders like Tamkivi and Gräbbi, the ultimate aim is deterrence. “You don’t have to stop every transaction,” Tamkivi said. “If criminals’ profitability drops by thirty per cent, they move on.” Evidence from Estonia suggests this shift is already taking place.
This evolution positions compliance as a competitive advantage. Institutions that collaborate effectively not only protect customers but strengthen their reputation and reduce long-term risk. As formal standards, data discipline and human trust converge, Europe is building a new kind of infrastructure — one that embeds cooperation into everyday practice. The message from Europe’s most connected markets is clear: trust is not a soft skill; it is a system. And building that system may prove to be one of the region’s most significant innovations in the fight against financial crime.
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