On June 6, 2025, the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub and the Bank of England released findings from Project Hertha, revealing how AI-driven system-wide analytics improved financial crime detection in real-time payments by up to 26%.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub – London Centre, in partnership with the Bank of England, has announced promising findings from Project Hertha, a groundbreaking initiative that leverages artificial intelligence to detect financial crime in real-time retail payment systems, without compromising user privacy.
BIS, headquartered in Switzerland, operates as a forum for central banks and international financial cooperation. The Bank of England, the UK’s central bank, manages monetary policy and financial stability in England and Wales.
Building upon prior efforts under Project Aurora, Project Hertha explored whether AI could trace sophisticated criminal behavior that often spans multiple financial institutions and accounts—activity difficult to detect in isolation.
Using system-wide transaction data analytics, the project created a synthetic dataset of 1.8 million simulated bank accounts and 308 million transactions. This innovative dataset was generated by AI to replicate real-world patterns while excluding any actual personal customer information.
Results showed a 12% improvement in detecting illicit accounts and a 26% rise in identifying new or unknown financial crime patterns compared to conventional techniques. These figures highlight the potential of AI to supplement existing compliance and fraud detection mechanisms.
However, the study also pointed out that analytics alone are insufficient. Legal, operational, and regulatory challenges need to be addressed before deploying such solutions on a national scale.
Project Hertha also stressed the importance of transparency, explainability, quality training data, and robust feedback loops to make AI systems both effective and trustworthy.
Named after Hertha Ayrton, a trailblazing British scientist and suffragette, the project honors her legacy of innovation and progress in science.
While real-world application will require further collaboration between regulatory bodies, banks, and payment providers, Project Hertha marks a significant step toward smarter, safer financial systems.
