2026 Fraud School

Fraud risk is evolving quickly across the financial services landscape, and credit unions are increasingly navigating more complex threats, from account takeovers and check fraud to deepfakes and payment manipulation. The 2026 Fraud School, hosted by NASCUS, Critical Ops, and America's Credit Unions, brings together credit union leaders, fraud investigators, and regulators to examine the modern threat environment and the institutional controls needed to manage it. This two-day, in-person program focuses on governance, documentation, and defensibility, with sessions led by practitioners and fraud experts covering real exposure areas. Sessions will explore the evolving fraud threat landscape, financial crime convergence, governance expectations, board oversight, safety-and-soundness considerations, major fraud exposure areas (including e-crimes, account takeover, deepfakes, and identity theft), building a fraud response playbook, strengthening institutional controls, and operational security and evidence integrity during investigations. Participants will also work through exercises designed to test real-world decisions. Hosting the event in Columbus, just steps from the Ohio Statehouse, reinforces the importance of collaboration between the financial sector and policymakers as fraud risks continue to evolve. It is an opportunity for the credit union community to lead the conversation on modern fraud prevention.