15 OCT 2026 — The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group have published a common framework for fighting online fraud in digital finance, launching it in Bangkok on 14 October during their Annual Meetings. Called the Bangkok Blueprint and drawn up with the Bank of Thailand, it sets out 12 "key considerations" that countries can adapt to their own laws.
It is guidance, not a rulebook. But who is saying it carries weight: the IMF and the World Bank now treat scam losses as a threat to trust in the financial system itself.
Why the IMF is talking about scams
The IMF's announcement argues that digital finance has widened access and made payments faster, but has also let fraud happen "at greater speed, scale, and sophistication". Cyber-enabled fraud, it adds, is increasingly tied to transnational organised crime, and INTERPOL ranks it among the most threatening crimes globally, alongside drug trafficking and money laundering.
"Trust is the foundation of every financial system," said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn called the problem "a global challenge that no country or institution can tackle alone".
The five pillars
According to the IMF, the considerations sit under five headings. They begin with the basics, a clear strategy and legal footing with defined responsibilities, and then follow a fraud through its whole life, from prevention and detection to incident response and help for victims. The Blueprint does not ask for new machinery. It asks countries to get more out of the risk and enforcement frameworks they already have, and to widen cooperation at home and across borders. Consumer protection and resilience make up the rest.
The policy paper describes the considerations as "a high-level blueprint with a focus on the financial sector", aimed at policymakers, regulators, financial institutions and payment infrastructure operators.
Beyond the banks
The line that matters most concerns who else is responsible. Fraud schemes often run through social media, digital platforms, e-commerce sites and telecommunications networks, so the Blueprint calls for "clear accountability and timely cooperation" across the public and private sectors, at home and abroad. That shifts attention from the point of payment, where a bank sees the loss, to the places where a scam is usually set up.
The Nation Thailand's breakdown lists practical measures under the framework, including tighter digital identity checks to stop impersonation and the opening of mule accounts, analytics to flag unusual transactions, and faster and fairer procedures for helping victims and returning funds. It also stresses that anti-fraud controls should not shut out older customers or small businesses from essential services.
Thailand's own track record
The host country makes an obvious test case, and it already runs measures consistent with the framework, the Nation reports. They include stronger mobile-banking security, checks on mule accounts, information sharing between financial institutions, and an Anti Online Scam Operation Center that can move to suspend suspicious transactions and accounts. Its "Connect the Dots" initiative pools data across agencies to spot links between scams more quickly. Tracing money once it leaves the country still requires more international cooperation and information sharing, the Nation notes.
What it does and does not change
The Blueprint creates no new obligations and no global law. Countries are encouraged to tailor the 12 considerations to their own legal and market conditions. As the Nation puts it, the framework "does not guarantee that stolen money will be recovered". For banks, payment firms and platforms across Southeast Asia, its practical value is as a common checklist that regulators are likely to quote back at them. It also bolsters the case that the companies hosting a victim's first contact with a scam should carry some of the responsibility for what happens next.
