FIS, the provider of core banking, payments and data infrastructure, has made its AML Investigations Agent commercially available to every US-based bank, opening the AI tool to institutions that do not currently use FIS services.
First revealed alongside Anthropic in May 2026, the agent was developed with input from design partner Amalgamated Bank, where it is now being rolled out.
FIS describes it as the first offering of its type from a firm that already runs the underlying systems on which financial crime investigations rely, with safeguards ensuring analysts retain authority over each decision.
The launch targets a costly problem. American financial institutions are estimated to spend between $35bn and $40bn annually on anti-money laundering work, according to LexisNexis figures from 2023.
Research from AnChain.AI in 2025 found analysts spend 40% to 60% of their investigation hours gathering data before any analysis starts, while Datos Insights put industry false-positive rates at 90% to 95% in 2023. With alert numbers continuing to rise, FIS argues the bottleneck lies in manual evidence collection rather than a shortage of analytical skill.
Drawing on Amalgamated’s review of its own investigation processes and the agent’s anticipated capabilities, the tool is expected to cut Level 1 alert review time by over 90%, shorten Level 2 case investigations by roughly 98% and reduce time spent drafting SAR narratives by more than 80%. Investigators can then shift their attention towards complex cases demanding deeper judgement.
Rather than handling every alert identically, the agent factors in each customer’s profile, past activity and expected behaviour before compiling evidence.
This allows it to separate, for example, a seasonal rise in cash deposits from deposits structured to stay below federal reporting limits, or a routine overseas payment from an unexplained wire to a high-risk jurisdiction. It then sets out its reasoning for the analyst.
The product sits on FIS’ Trust Assured framework, which builds governance, compliance and responsible AI into the company’s offerings. Each output is traceable to its source record, document or check image, and every recommendation, its rationale and the analyst’s ultimate decision are captured in a full audit trail suitable for internal audit or regulatory review.
Through the FIS Control Plane, the firm’s governance layer for agent access, controls and bank-specific settings, each institution’s risk logic, thresholds and procedures are kept separate.
FIS states the agent is intended to complement, not supplant, a bank’s existing monitoring and case management tools. It connects natively with FIS Horizon and FIS Systematics, two of the company’s core banking platforms, and FIS IBS is next on the roadmap.
FIS created and owns the agent, working with an Anthropic team embedded within its product and compliance units and leveraging its banking relationships, regulatory know-how and transaction data infrastructure. The partnership also yielded evaluation frameworks and engineering practices that FIS plans to apply when developing further agents on the same governed platform. The agent operates in FIS’ private cloud and is powered by Anthropic’s Claude models.
FIS head of enterprise fraud and financial crimes Stan Szwalbenest said, “Investigations don’t slow down because analysts lack judgment. They slow down because evidence is scattered across systems and every alert gets treated the same. By bringing together the core, payments and data these investigations rely on, FIS gives analysts a head start while keeping them in control of every decision.”
Amalgamated Bank chief information and operations officer Sean Searby said, “AML investigations require comprehensive evidence and experienced judgment. The FIS AML Investigations Agent can reduce time spent gathering information and preparing documentation, allowing investigators to focus on complex cases and critical decisions.
Each recommendation has a clear audit trail, while the investigator remains accountable for the final determination. In regulated environments, AI must strengthen human expertise while preserving trust and governance.”
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