How FNBO uses agentic AI to investigate financial crime

June 25, 2026 - 01:52

The Omaha-based bank First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) has adopted a new approach to fighting financial crime, using what it calls "agentic AI" to speed up investigations into fraud, sanctions violations, and money laundering. According to the bank, the technology has cut the time needed to research suspicious alerts by roughly 50 percent.

Traditionally, investigating a flagged transaction requires a human analyst to manually pull data from multiple systems, cross-reference names against watchlists, and piece together a narrative. FNBO's system uses AI agents that can autonomously perform these steps. The agents gather evidence, check for false positives, and compile a summary for the investigator to review. This shifts the human role from digging through data to making the final judgment call.

The bank has been testing the system on a range of alerts, from potential sanctions matches to unusual transaction patterns. Early results show that what used to take hours can now be done in minutes. FNBO says the goal is not to replace investigators but to let them focus on the most complex cases. The technology also helps reduce the backlog of alerts, a common problem for financial institutions that must review every flagged activity.

While FNBO did not name the specific vendor or platform behind the agentic AI, the move reflects a broader trend in banking. Large institutions are increasingly turning to AI to handle the growing volume of regulatory alerts, which have surged as global sanctions and anti-money laundering rules tighten. For FNBO, the payoff is faster case resolution and fewer manual errors. The bank plans to expand the system to other areas of compliance in the coming months.