IMF, World Bank Debut Anti-Fraud Framework at Bangkok Annual Meetings

The managements of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group on October 14, 2026 released the Bangkok Blueprint, a high-level framework setting out 12 key considerations to help countries prevent, detect, and address cyber-enabled fraud in digital financial services, according to IMF Press Release No. 26/336. Developed in coordination with the Bank of Thailand, the framework was released during the 2026 IMF–WBG Annual Meetings in Bangkok in partnership with the Thai authorities.

The Blueprint is organized around five pillars: establishing strategic and legal foundations; strengthening the fraud-mitigation life cycle; leveraging existing risk-mitigation and enforcement frameworks; expanding domestic and cross-border cooperation; and promoting consumer protection and resilience. The 12 considerations are intended to help countries identify vulnerabilities and develop comprehensive, coordinated responses, and the release encourages countries to tailor them to their legal, institutional, and market conditions. By fostering a safer and more trusted financial ecosystem, the framework seeks to help countries use digital finance to expand opportunity, inclusion, and sustainable growth, the release states.

According to the release, digital finance has expanded access, innovation, and efficiency, but it has also enabled fraud to occur at greater speed, scale, and sophistication. Cyber-enabled fraud is increasingly linked to transnational organized crime and is ranked by INTERPOL as among the most threatening crimes globally, alongside drug trafficking and money laundering, the release states. Recognizing that fraud schemes often involve social media, digital platforms, e-commerce, and telecommunications networks, the Blueprint emphasizes clear accountability and timely cooperation across the public and private sectors, both domestically and across borders.

Statements From IMF, World Bank, and Thai Officials

“Trust is the foundation of every financial system. As digital finance expands, countries must work together to combat cyber-enabled fraud and preserve confidence in the technologies that support growth and inclusion,” said Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF.

Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said cyber-enabled fraud “has become a global challenge that no country or institution can tackle alone,” adding that the Blueprint reflects a shared commitment to strengthen cooperation, build trust, and promote a safe and inclusive digital financial future.

World Bank Group Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer Anshula Kant said digital financial services can be a powerful driver of economic opportunity, jobs, and financial inclusion in developing economies, and that strengthening protection against fraud is essential to ensuring people can use the services with confidence. Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said that as digital finance becomes increasingly interconnected, the response to fraud must be equally connected, describing the Blueprint as a foundation for stronger cooperation and collective action to protect citizens and strengthen trust in the digital economy.

Thailand’s Fraud Data and the Blueprint’s Origin

Vitai described the initiative in a keynote speech on September 3, 2026, telling the Bangkok Business Summit 2026 that Thailand had partnered with the IMF and World Bank to develop the Bangkok Blueprint for Fraud-Resilient Financial Services. He said the central bank’s ambition was for the Blueprint to become a practical reference for countries seeking to strengthen their response to digital fraud, useful to the global community beyond the Annual Meetings.

In that speech, Vitai said financial fraud caused losses of more than 43 billion baht in Thailand in 2024, around 0.2% of GDP, with actual losses likely higher due to underreporting. He said Asia accounted for nearly two-thirds of global scam losses in 2024, that cyber incidents in the financial sector have increased tenfold globally over the past decade while cyber-enabled fraud cases nearly tripled, and that cyberattack attempts targeting Thailand’s banking sector rose around 45% in 2025, largely in the form of DDoS, malware, and phishing campaigns.

The governor said Thai digital payment transactions more than doubled over four years, from 21 billion baht in 2021 to 48 billion baht in 2025, while mobile banking accounts rose nearly 70%, from 84 million to 141 million. Digital banking adoption reached 188 million accounts in 2026, he said.

Vitai said Bank of Thailand measures reduced authorized push payment fraud losses from a peak of 8.6 billion baht in the second quarter of 2024 to 1.81 billion baht in the second quarter of 2026, a reduction of nearly 80%. Those measures included mobile banking security standards, tougher scam-account management, API-enabled money tracing, customer profiling, caps on daily digital transfer outflows, and shared responsibility guidelines. He said incidents involving money-draining apps, a form of unauthorized payment fraud, fell to zero reported cases from January 2025, and that fraud patterns have since shifted toward authorized push payment fraud, which requires action beyond the banking sector and close collaboration with stakeholders.

A joint release from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Thailand on July 14, 2026 said the Annual Meetings would take place October 12–18, 2026 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, with more than 15,000 delegates from 191 countries attending Thailand’s first hosting of the meetings since 1991. That release described the Blueprint as a policy framework developed with the IMF and World Bank Group that countries can adapt to their own contexts, covering robust policy and legal foundations, fraud prevention and detection, enhanced inter-agency and international cooperation, and public financial literacy and digital resilience. It also outlined the central bank’s Safe & Inclusive Digital Finance concept, built on three mechanisms: managing digital fraud, scams, and crimes; mitigating cybercrime risks; and creating an accessible and fair enabling ecosystem. Vitai said in the July release that the Blueprint was designed to be one of the key deliverables of the summit.