GRA · Financial Crime and Fraud Risk

Spatial financeWhere capital meets hazard, exposure and transition

Distributed ledgers and digital assets for financial crime and fraud risk

Distributed ledgers record crypto-asset transactions on public or permissioned chains. On this platform they are examined as a channel for fraud, laundering and sanctions evasion, and as a source of traceable data for compliance and investigation.

01Register

Distributed ledgers and digital assets for financial crime and fraud risk on the record.

Method recordSTEM method
  1. MethodDistributed ledgers and digital assets
  2. Applied inFinancial Crime and Fraud Risk
  3. Canonical pageSTEM Commons
02Application

What distributed ledgers and digital assets does here.

Distributed ledgers and digital assets use shared, replicated records maintained by consensus among participants. They support new forms of payment, asset registration and contracting, with distinct operational and financial risks. In financial stability, cyber and digital resilience and governance and institutions, ledger analysis informs how digital asset failures could spill into payments and markets. It supports evaluation of ledgers for transparent registries and aid distribution. The canonical description is on the STEM Commons.

Blockchain analytics

Transaction graphs on public ledgers are clustered and attributed to services, giving compliance teams risk signals with stated attribution uncertainty.

Travel rule implementation

Originator and beneficiary information exchange between virtual asset service providers is examined for coverage, interoperability and data protection.

Obfuscation techniques

Mixers, cross-chain bridges and privacy tools are described at a general level for how they reduce traceability and how regulators respond.

03Exposure, loss and capital

What it means for exposure, loss and capital.

The exposure, loss, scenario and capital views a risk officer, supervisor or ministry of finance would ask for, with the frameworks they report against. Structures follow supervisory and actuarial practice. Values are illustrative: never prices, ratings or advice.

Transmission channels

How a shock in distributed ledgers and digital assets for financial crime and fraud risk reaches credit, market, underwriting, liquidity and operational risk, and feeds back.

Channel structure after the Basel Committee's work on climate-related risk drivers and transmission channels; links shown are typical paths, not estimated exposures.
NGFS climate scenarios · Network for Greening the Financial SystemIFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures · ISSBTCFD recommendations · Financial Stability Board TCFDPrinciples for the effective management of climate-related financial risks · Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
04Data

What the method consumes.

Datasets and records used by distributed ledgers and digital assets on this platform, with the role each plays and the label its values carry. Sources are listed in the source register.

DataRoleLabel
Public blockchain dataTransaction recordsOBSERVED
Analytics attributionsEntity labelsESTIMATED
FATF implementation updatesRegulatory coveragePublished statistics
05Process

How the process runs.

Process explorer · Process

Distributed ledgers and digital assets for financial crime and fraud risk: Payment from instruction to finality

8 steps4 stages

Process

Distributed ledgers and digital assets for financial crime and fraud risk: Payment from instruction to finality

An RTGS system checks a payment, queues it if funds are short, settles it gross in real time and gives final settlement.

  1. 01 Intake

    1. 01Payment instructionSource · ParticipantThe system should use, or at least accommodate, relevant internationally accepted communication procedures and standards.
    2. 04Validity and conditionality checksStep · System operatorA payment is accepted once it passes validity and conditionality checks, such as funds or credit. An invalid payment is generally rejected.
  2. 02 Settlement

    1. 02LiquidityDataset · ParticipantParticipants need liquidity for outgoing payments: central or commercial bank balances, incoming payments and intraday credit.
    2. 05QueueModel · System operatorA valid payment that fails conditionality checks is queued or rejected. Queuing and other liquidity-saving tools can cut liquidity needs.
    3. 06Settle in real time, grossStep · System operatorRTGS settles payments continuously, without deferral, usually one by one. Money settlements should use central bank money where practical.
  3. 03 Finality

    1. 07Final settlementRecord · System operatorThe system gives clear, certain final settlement by the end of the value date at least, intraday or real time where needed.
    2. 08ReconciliationStep · System operatorReconciliation checks that records issued by two different entities match. The pages read state no timing for payment systems.
  4. 04 Resilience

    1. 03Business continuity and secondary siteExercise · System operatorThe plan uses a secondary site and aims to resume critical IT within two hours and settle by end of day. Arrangements are regularly tested.

Outline of an external standard or method, from its public sources. It describes what the framework says, not a record of any run. It does not show that Nexus or any partner performs, certifies or approves a step. A gate is a step of the method, never a Nexus approval. The source is the CPMI-IOSCO Principles for financial market infrastructures. A business continuity plan covers disruption.

06Validation

How results are checked.

Protocols and contracts are checked through formal verification, audits and adversarial testing. On-chain data allow independent reconciliation of balances and flows.

CheckHow it is done
Attribution uncertaintyAnalytics labels are treated as estimates with stated confidence
Method disclosureEstimates name the provider and method
No enabling detailDescriptions omit details that would help evade controls

Code defects and governance disputes can cause irreversible losses. Links to the traditional financial system are often opaque.

08Stewardship

Who maintains the method.

Fintech Nexus stewards distributed ledgers and digital assets for the Consortium and reviews how it is applied across platforms.

10Questions

Questions and answers.

What are the limits of distributed ledgers and digital assets in this field?
Code defects and governance disputes can cause irreversible losses. Links to the traditional financial system are often opaque.
How are results checked?
Protocols and contracts are checked through formal verification, audits and adversarial testing. On-chain data allow independent reconciliation of balances and flows.
Are the values on this page real?
The data names, roles and checks are real descriptions of practice. The canvas shows a design of the method's use, not a run; no result is reported here.
Where else is this method applied?
The canonical method page lists every platform that applies it.
ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

Global Risks AllianceFinancial Crime and Fraud RiskEvidence Brief
Financial Crime and Fraud Risk

Bring an exposure or capital question to the Alliance.

Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.

The Global Risks Alliance

Finance · trust · precision

Not for profit

Our articles, maps and twins are free to read and free to republish. Readers and partners keep it that way.

Partner with us

Who funds us

GRA is a not-for-profit institution. To ask who funds a piece of work, use the funding questions form.

Independence

Editors and the expert reviewers named on each article decide what we publish. Funders and partners do not review or approve articles before publication.

Licence

Articles: CC BY 4.0. Figures, maps, twins and data: CC BY 4.0. Other uses: ask through the permissions form.