IMF and World Bank launch Bangkok Blueprint to protect digital finance

The blueprint aims for cooperation across sectors and markets.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) have launched the Bangkok Blueprint, which aims to help countries prevent, detect, and address the growing threat of cyber-enabled fraud in digital financial services.

Developed with the Bank of Thailand (BOT), the blueprint emphasizes accountability and cooperation across the public and private sectors, both domestic and across borders, the IMF said in an announcement on 14 October 2026.

It features 12 key considerations to help identify vulnerabilities and develop comprehensive, coordinated responses.

The blueprint’s five pillars are 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 blueprint seeks to strengthen trust in digital financial services, it said.

“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.

Cyber-enabled fraud is increasingly linked to transnational organized crime and is ranked by INTERPOL as amongst the most threatening crimes globally, alongside drug trafficking and money laundering, the IMF said.