Modern technology and the vast amounts of data that comes with it have created an opportunity for financial services and the public sector to better tackle financial crime. To seize this opportunity, organisations must work collaboratively, tracking criminal behaviour in real time by sharing more data and analysing it with smarter technology.

That's the core message in our new report ? Partners Against Crime. We found banks and other regulated businesses could share more data with each other, law enforcers, regulators and other agencies. And that by using automated systems to analyse the data, all these organisations could spot patterns of crime as they emerge. This would transform how we disrupt criminals who currently launder around $2 trillion a year through mainstream financial systems.

For this new system to be most effective, organisations will need to invest. But they will see benefits in return, including:

• lower compliance risk - automated systems will cut the chances of fines from regulators for anti-money laundering lapses
• lower costs - businesses will be able to divert resources from costly and time-consuming manual systems
• stronger reputation - making bigger inroads against financial crime will boost trust in the financial system.

The scale of financial crime is astonishing. Despite huge international efforts, only around one per cent of dirty money is seized each year in Europe. Bodies like the UK's Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) have seen the private and public sector come together, but more can be done.

To date, partnership forums predominantly use manual systems and discussion, which means they can only respond to confirmed crimes. The automated system outlined in our report would highlight emerging risks at the market level in real time. Sharing data like transaction details and customer behaviour would shed light on typologies and trends that individual organisations can't get from their data alone.

The importance of close collaboration with the National Crime Agency (NCA) and police forces is crucial too.  Under the law, banks are obliged to report suspicious financial activity that may point to money laundering. However, there is more that can be done to change the law to help make it easier for banks and other financial services to share information.

The UK is set to take a big step forward with its National Economic Crime Centre, which will see partners sharing more data. But to really push on, it will need to integrate data more fully and automatically - and other jurisdictions will need to adopt similar systems to help tackle cross-border crime.

There will also need to be a common technology platform to ensure all partners can work together seamlessly, alongside a framework of what data to share, in what form and at what intervals.

PA's report draws on their experience of working with financial services businesses, public sector bodies, technology companies and regulators. PA also interviewed figures from across the public and private sector.

For more insights, download PA's Partners Against Crime report.