NatWest Group has transformed Data Fusion from a pioneering pilot into a permanent national capability, demonstrating how secure data sharing between banks and law enforcement can expose organised crime.
In 2025, NatWest’s Data Fusion proved that cross-sector data sharing could reveal criminal activity hidden across the financial system. In 2026, NatWest Group and its partners have taken that achievement further, establishing the initiative as a permanent operational capability that reshapes how the UK tackles serious and organised crime.
Co-led by NatWest Group and the National Crime Agency (NCA), the partnership brings together eight UK banks alongside public-sector organisations to securely combine financial data, intelligence, and analytics. By creating a shared approach to identifying high-risk activity, the initiative enables participants to detect hidden criminal networks faster, strengthen investigations, and better protect customers and communities.
From pilot to permanent capability
The partnership was established to solve a longstanding challenge where individual banks often only see one part of a criminal network, while law enforcement can lack the cross-institution intelligence needed to act quickly. Data Fusion closes that gap by securely combining targeted financial signals with law enforcement intelligence to reveal patterns that would otherwise remain hidden.
The partners built the legal, governance, and technical foundations for secure customer-level data sharing. A common data schema, shared threat indicators, and a permanent Joint Analytical Team allow analysts, investigators, engineers, and data scientists from across the public and private sectors to work together on priority threats, including money laundering, modern slavery, human trafficking, organised immigration crime, and labour exploitation.
The initiative has become a scalable operating model that can evolve to tackle emerging threats across the UK financial system.
“Great capability, strong collaboration, and problem solving between financial institutions and the NCA across a challenging, highly regulated industry.” – Judges’ comments
Delivering measurable impact
Data Fusion has delivered operational, organisational, and societal benefits by making intelligence sharing faster, more targeted, and more effective. Key outcomes include:
- 216 intelligence products generated.
- 925 customers reviewed through shared analysis.
- 160 customers exited due to links with criminal activity.
- Support for ten of the NCA’s highest-priority investigations.
- Ten previously unknown organised crime group networks or targets identified.
- Eight strategic intelligence products produced.
- Investigation support reduced from weeks to hours, accelerating law enforcement activity.
These insights have informed live operations across offences including fraud, modern slavery, organised immigration crime, drug importation, and child sexual exploitation. For participating banks, the partnership has improved visibility of cross-institution criminal networks while reducing administrative burden.
Perhaps the programme’s greatest partnership achievement is the shift from reactive information sharing to continuous intelligence collaboration. By creating shared governance, common standards, and trusted processes, the partnership enables organisations to work collectively against threats that no single institution could address alone.
What the future holds
The establishment of a permanent Joint Analytical Team marks the transition from innovation to national capability. Data Fusion provides a foundation based on common governance, shared analytical methods, and trusted relationships for expanding into new crime typologies while incorporating technologies.
The initiative demonstrates what can be achieved when competitors collaborate around a shared public purpose. By combining data, expertise, and governance across the public and private sectors, NatWest Group and its partners have created a blueprint for tackling economic crime that extends well beyond financial services. The judges recognised the partnership for proving that lasting collaboration, underpinned by robust data governance, can deliver benefits for participating organisations, law enforcement, and society alike.
