Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman calls for a national fraud strategy as losses mount

Fraud has become one of the biggest industries nobody wants to admit exists. Nasdaq Chair and CEO Adena Friedman wants the US to start treating it that way. Speaking at an American Banker event in New York on Tuesday, Friedman proposed a National Fraud Strategy. The plan would coordinate the fight against financial crime across banks, tech companies, telecom providers and law enforcement. The timing is pointed: criminals are using AI to run scams at a scale that individual institutions struggle to match. What Friedman is proposing Friedman gave the keynote at the American Banker Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance Conference on October 20, 2026. She landed at No. 4 on that publication’s 2026 Most Powerful Women in Finance list. Her framework rests on a few core pillars. The first is responsible information sharing between the institutions that see fraud happening. The second is a set of common best practices. The third, and probably the most consequential, is legal safe harbors that would protect organizations when they collaborate. Banks and other firms often hesitate to share data on suspected criminals because of privacy and liability concerns. A safe harbor would give th...